Akatuki's Revival
by Teridax1
Summary: We all know that most of the Akatsuki members are dead... or are they? And no I do not own Naruto as much as I wish it.
1. Chapter 1

**Akatsuki's Revival**

On the out skirts of Konoha, 5 figures appeared out of the gloom. The wind roared and made the long grasses between the Village and the road into a rolling green sea. The figures black and cloud dotted cloaks swayed vigorously in the ferocious breeze.

The orange-haired man spoke, he was obviously the leader by the way he held himself and spoke with a commanding tone, "Deidara..." spoke the man, known as Pain. His 5 ringed eyes glowing in the semi-darkness, radiating a power that sent a cold shiver to the very soul, and staring at a long-haired blonde, named Deidara.

He looked at Pain with the utmost respect and fear said," Yes Leader-Sama?"

Pain looked at the clay-lover with emotionless eyes that sent a shiver down the missing-Iwagakure ninja's spine as he replied."Your mission is to go to the outskirts of the Hidden Sand Village and pick up our fellow Akatsuki Member, And be sure to hurry, you know how he hates to wait...",

"Sure thing, Leader-Sama don't worry it will be a cinch, hm," Said Deidara grinning wildly while he quickly proceeded to create a giant clay bird. He then jumped on his clay creation and started to fly away; eager to get away from his fearsome and somewhat terrifying leader. Soon he was just a speck vanishing into the distance.

When he was out of sight Pain continued to look at his fellow Akatsuki members, what he saw was in the very least an impressive fighting force. Konan a beautiful blue-haired kunochi who was one of the only people he could trust. Zetsu a cannibalistic Plant-like being with a strange multi-personality, although he was strange in many ways, his expert tracking and spying skills more then made up for these facts. Kisame a shark-like man who was as merciless as the animal he appeared to be. Lastly, there was Madara Uchiha. A powerful and ancient Konoha Missing Ninja, who had just recently showed his true colors, shedding his clever disguise as the dim-witted fool that had been named Tobi.

In all a fearsome fighting force to say the least, although the recent... set backs have exponentially weakened the Akatuki. Pain began to speak once more looking at the luminous village with contempt, "Konoha... your arrogance will cost you greatly, you will very well regret that you have brought the full wrath of the Akatsuki to your pathetic excuse of a village and…" a gruesome smile forming on his lips, "you will soon find out enemies you once thought dead are there to stab you in the back..."

***

In the deserted autopsy room there in the middle the mangled body of Kakuzu rested, once fearsome and powerful Takigakure Missing-ninja was now laid on an operating table, a deep hole in his chest from Kakashi's lightning blade was clearly visible.

There were also various cuts and gashes on his motionless body, just moments before various Medical Leaf ninja had been looking and experimenting for Takigakure's forbidden Jutsu, _Jiongu__._ Suddenly Kakuzu's bleak and uncomprehending eyes regained their light and focus.

A loud and sickening sound rose in volume, _Thump-Thump, Thump-Thump. _If one listened hard enough they would release that it was a sound of a beating heart that was working overdrive. Kakuzu lived again, like a zombie out of a horror movie he slowly raised from the operating table, hundreds of dark threads stitching up most of his more severe wounds.

Looking down at himself with his Jade green eyes he saw with indignity and outrage that only his pants and ring remained and the rest of his clothing was gone.

Kakuzu thought with bitterness and disdain, _so,_ _they decided to keep from experimenting on my lower section of my body, how nice of them. _

He walked up to the body bag just next to his, a figure's body was sprawled onto the autopsy table carelessly, their right arm hung lifelessly on one end, on it's thumb was a red ring with the Japanese writing, Shu(Scarlet) on it.

"Tch, Oh how the mighty of fallen," Kakuzu said to himself, his cold and indifferent eyes starring at the mangled body of the once all-powerful Itachi Uchiha. "You were one of the strongest Akatsuki members… but now you're just a science experiment for these Konoha Medics." Kakuzu said without a hint of sadness or regret in his voice, as he continued. "If I were Pain I would just leave your body to rot, the Akatsuki does not need an insult like you, who got killed by your own brother," Kakuzu replied coldly. "Unfortunately this is not my decision, so I'd better hurry up or Pain-Sama will be in a foul mood." Kakuzu muttered to himself as he reached for the body of the recently deceased Uchiha.

***

A red-headed teenage boy walked through the voracious gale of the deserts of Suna, his black and with red clouds dotted cloak flapping in the desert wind. The sand rose and appeared to be attacking the young boy, who walked through it the desert dunes of the outskirts of Sunagakure.

He proceeded to go on until he stopped at what seemed to be a cemetery; said cemetery was filled with various sandstone tombstones and mausoleums. He continued to walk until he saw the specific grave he seemed to be looking for.

On said tombstone the name Chiyo-Baa-Sama was engraved on the sandstone. The man known as Sasori said, "Pity… If only you were alive Grandma Chiyo, then I could properly get my revenge for the humiliation and damage you caused me… Oh well I suppose I will have to settle for the medical bitch instead." Sasori said in a frustrated and angry tone, his hazel eyes glaring at the tombstone with an immense loathing.

Soon however, his expression cleared and a small chuckle escaped from his beautifully crafted lip, "You never did appreciate my art, how you repulsed at it, you thought I was a monster and at your last moments of life you thought you killed me…" his chuckle turned into cold and insane laughter."How very foolish and naïve of you grandma." He said, his laughter stopping so abruptly that it could have been non-existent. "Now whose laughing, you senile old hag?" Sasori asked questioningly.

Sasori started to raise his arms and slam them to the ground yelling. "Doton, Earth Raise Jutsu." The ground proceeded to rise until a coffin rose upon its depths. "For once, you actually have something I want Grandma Chiyo," Sasori said with a cruel smirk.

***

"Zetsu," Pain said with a commanding tone that immediately got the attention of the Plant-like being who preceded to look wearily at his powerful and fearsome leader whose 5-ringed eyes glowed eerily in the semi-darkness and was vibrating an almost overwhelming power.

The plant-man asked with respect and fear in his voice, "Yes Leader-Sama?" Pain threw with insane speed an enormous sack towards him, which Zetsu catch with no difficulty what so ever.

"**What the hell is this for?"** Asked the darker split personality of Zetsu's, looking at the large sack inquiringly.

"I need you to locate and retrieve our former Akatsuki member; my latest reports tell us that he was last seen running through the Nara Clan Forest. Remember failure is not an option, now go," answered Pain irritation and impatience in his voice, a dangerous killing intent that was barely contained radiated from his body, it was obvious he did not like being addressed so bluntly.

"Roger that." Said Zetsu and quickly preceded to melt into the ground before Pain decided to punish him for his rudeness.

When Zetsu was gone he addressed the remaining Akatsuki members. "It is time!" shouted Pain with a trace of excitement in his voice. "Time for Konoha to taste Akatsuki's wrath!" Pain said, his eyes looking at the village hungrily.


	2. Chapter 2

"Remember, this is only a distraction." Pain said to the blood-thirsty Akatsuki members in a tone that meant that if anyone argued they would know the true meaning of pain.

Kisame of all people looked the most disappointed. Kisame knew he shouldn't push his luck but couldn't help but say the one word that every other Akatsuki member was wondering, "Why?"

A look of impatience and a little bit of amusement passed on Pain's face. He answered by saying, "Do not worry, we will all get the chance to destroy Konoha."

A glimmer of hope gleamed in Kisame's eyes, hoping that he had changed his mind. Alas the hope was non-existent as he continued saying, "But not today, we need to give our fellow Akatsuki members time to finish their missions." Looks of understanding quickly passed through the dangerous group of S-Class criminals.

"Now as I was saying even though this will be only a distraction, you have orders to kill if necessary." Pain said looking at the group of Missing-Ninja. Kisame grinned with delight at the possibility of all the killings he would do, especially the one that had kicked him… "Kisame," Pain said as he looked at the former Swordsman of the Mist with his particular eyes that made Kisame shudder.

The shark-like man gave Pain his well known sharp toothed grin and said with barely contained excitement, "Yes Pain-Sama?"

A small smile appeared on Pain's face as he said, "I need you to break down that troublesome wall." Pointing to the high and imposing walls of Konoha.

Kisame wasted no time as he proceeded clap his hands together and yelled "_Suiton: Suishoha_!" Then gallon upon gallon appeared from the atmosphere, forming a giant spiraling water vortex that, which then exploded from the top, creating a giant Tsunami wave that then crashed into Konoha's giant wall, which was demolished on impact. Wasting no time, the Akatsuki members ran towards the shattered remains of what was once a wall and attacked the surviving Leaf Shinobi that were still stunned by the incredible blast of water that had hit them just moments before.

***

Zetsu quickly started to rise from the ground into a deep forest, which he immediately recognized as the Nara clan forest which he had gone through various times on scouting missions.

He then jumped up and proceeded to jump across each branch, looking for anything out of the ordinary. Soon he came across a large clearing; in the center was a ditch with various different sized rocks covering most of it. Various strands of bloodied ninja wire littered the ground and trees; as well as dried up blood which spattered the surroundings around the filled up pit.

Zetsu could faintly hear muffled screaming from below the pit. He deduced that only one person could survive such an attack of this magnitude. Quickly he said,"_Tsuchi Bunshin no Jutsu."_ As multiple Earth clones appeared out of the ground and proceeded to remove stone after stone of the pit.

A few minutes later multiple body parts were uncovered and were put into the giant sack that Pain had given him. Soon a young males voice could be heard saying, "Who the hell is this!? Show your selves you bastards!" Hidan said various other things that would have made a sailor gag. Soon the bloodied head of Hidan appeared and when he saw Zetsu he screamed, "About time you plant bastard! What the hell took you so long, you fucking prick!"

***

In the Konoha Autopsy room Kakuzu was about to grab Itachi Uchiha's body when he heard the door open and a random leaf medic muttering to himself, "Why do I have to look over the rag doll man?"

So entranced in his notes that he failed to see the 'rag doll' up and about. Kakuzu's eye twitched as he thought, _rag doll? _

Kakuzu's eyes gleamed with murderous rage as he screamed, "Rag Doll?!" he then slammed the door shut with his arm which was extended by the various threads that were in between his arm and hand. The startled Konoha medic looked up from his notes and saw to his horror that the supposedly dead body of Kakuzu was glaring daggers at him.

The medic didn't even have time to scream as Kakuzu was on top of him and said with burning anger in his voice, "This 'rag doll' was about to just continue his mission and leave you pieces of slime to die another day, but now…" various threads attached themselves onto the medics chest, "This 'rag doll' is going to take your heart, don't worry though… it will only hurt a lot!" soon the howls of agony could be heard from the Medical ninja, those screams were like a sweet lullaby to Kakuzu's ears.

Eventually the screams died down and when Kakuzu stood up a gaping hole was where the medical ninja's heart once was. A bear-like mask with green marking covering multiple parts of the mask; formed on the middle of Kakuzu's back. A look of pain flashed in his eyes, stealing hearts was always painful to his back. But a moment later the pain subsided and soon he walked over to the body bag that contained the once powerful Uchiha.

He wasted no time removing the body bag and grabbing the motionless corpse of Itachi Uchiha and on his way out he stopped at the items chamber which was unfortunately locked. Thankfully the heart he had stolen was an earth heart and soon he said,"_Doton: Domu no Jutsu_." His body turned a blackish color and he slammed his fist onto the chamber door, it flew off its hinges and into the other room a large fist-shaped dent in the middle of the destroyed door.

He walked though the various corridors of the room, the body of Itachi carried on his back. He searched the many corridors until he found a three-bladed blood red scythe and with no hesitation took the scythe of his former-partner. "Tch, so those Konoha bastards took a dead man's weapon or in this case a man that was blown to bits and was buried alive in a God-forsaken pit, in any case disgraceful." He said with contempt, his Jade green eyes looking at the feared and dreaded weapon of Hidan, emotionlessly.

"Hm. This could sell for a pretty penny at a ninja weapons store or Hidan could buy it back for twice the price." Kakuzu said with a cold chuckle. He then, with Itachi's body on his back with his right hand and Hidan's scythe in his other hand he preceded to walk away from the God-forsaken place.

***

Sasori watched with impatience as the coffin finally reached the surface of the ground. He quickly smashed the coffin lid and peered inside. What was inside surprised Sasori, instead of the rotting remains of his grandma, a pile of ash was all that remained of the famous female puppeteer.

Sasori screamed in rage, his shout disappearing in the desert gale. Realizing that he had wasted valuable time, he knew he would have to infiltrate Sunagakure and find one of the researchers of the Revival Technique; Chiyo had used this technique to heal that medical brat and revive Gaara the former Jinchuriki of Shukaku the Sand Spirit. Fortunately he was weakened exponentially by the forcibly draining of his demon spirit, although he now harbors an intense hatred towards Akatsuki and would stop at nothing to execute the man who helped in the kidnapping and killing of him if he knew that Sasori was as close as he is.

_But hey, win some lose some,_ thought Sasori with a smirk. Sasori then continued to walk towards the Village Hidden in the Sand which was eerily illuminated by the full moon.

***

Soon the stunned leaf Shinobi were killed, unable to defend themselves because of their injuries and the enormous skill of their opponents. As soon as the group of S-Rank Missing-ninja finished slaughtering the defenseless Leaf ninja; the group of Akatsuki had split up.

Konan headed towards the medical mortuary to back up Kakuzu if he needed any help. Kisame went in search of Might Guy to pay him back for the kick he had inflicted years before. Madara went to the Nara compound to raise some hell and to distract them long enough for Zetsu to finish his mission without getting interrupted. Pain headed towards the Hokage's office hoping to get information on the village's ninja, more importantly information on Naruto.

As Pain stopped to look for the Hokage Tower, he realized how bad the vantage point in the middle of the deserted Konoha Park was. Pain made to move to higher ground, only to realize that he couldn't move. He saw that a nearby tree had wrapped its branches around his body and a female voice saying"_Magen: Jubaka Satsu._"

Pain looked calmly up at the face of Kurenai Yuhi. Kurenai's red eyes were glaring daggers at the Akatsuki leader, "This is the end of the line for you," said Kurenai coldly.

A look of amusement passed over Pain's face. "Do you really think you can defeat me?" he inquired.

"Perhaps not, but l will do everything in my power to avenge Asuma's death" answered Kurenai.

Cold laughter echoed around the surrounding trees, "You do not have a hope of beating me by yourself, especially in your condition." Pain said, looking at the beginnings of a round bulge on her stomach.

Pain then broke though the tree and threw a kunai with expert accuracy at the startled Kunochi. Sparks flew as another kunai deflected the opposing kunai. A clear feminine voice said, "She isn't alone,"

Pain looked to his side and said in his emotionless voice, "Well, if it isn't the fifth Hokage, I'm honored" as he looked at a young blonde which appeared to be in her late twenties, and it was obvious she held intense hatred towards the man known as Pain.

***

Konan was almost to the mortuary when she heard twig snap and she whirled around facing the intruder. She quickly dodged as a kunai with an exploding tag exploded creating a large crater of where the kunochi once stood.

She quickly turned to face a man in his late thirties, with spiky white hair, a black mask that covered the lower part of his face, and one Sharingan eye that was glowing brightly in the gloom. "So you are Kakashi I presume?" Asked Konan in a disinterested tone.

"Yes and by the black cloak with red clouds dotting across it I take it you are a member of Akatsuki correct?" Said Kakashi in an accusing tone.

"Obviously, I am Konan, an Akatsuki member and soon, I will be your killer." Konan said with malice in her sweet angelic voice.

***

Kisame ran through the sleeping village, looking for the one who had injured him and lived, Might Guy. Kisame was determined to make sure that didn't last for long. As he ran by the same spot that he and Itachi had battled Kurenai and Asuma, he heard a projectile being thrown, he quickly blocked the kunai with his sword.

Suddenly a voice could be heard saying, "Dynamic Entry!" As Kisame was kicked in the back and was sent flying into the nearby river, which he landed upright on the water.

"So… Might Guy we meet again. I will have got you back for both kicks now. An arm or two is more then enough compensation, don't you think?" Kisame said with a toothy grin and then jumped towards Guy and swung his mighty sword, Samehada at him…

***

As Madara made his way to the Nara compound he stopped. The ancient Uchiha said, "You can stop following me now."

Three ninja appeared out of the shadows. One was a man in his late twenties, had light brown hair, and wore a green Jounin vest along with a black shirt underneath, A Hyuga man in his late teens and with long brown hair, last was a man in his late teens, with short black hair and an unsheathed short sword , which he held in his right hand. "Who are you and why have you defiled our village with your presence?" Demanded Tenzo.

Madara gave a small chuckle."Explanations and other matters do not matter to the soon to be deceased," Madara answered sadistically as he activated his Sharingan.


	3. Chapter 3

**Akatsuki's Revival**

Soon Sasori was at the remade entrance of Sunagakure, which he had destroyed months ago. By the cover of night he ran between various streets and used his memory to find one of the researchers he had saw and even talked too when he was a kid. Eventually he found the house of one of the researchers. _This is going to be fun_, thought Sasori, a cold smile forming on his face. As he quickly destroyed the door with his inhuman strength a man with black hair, in his late forties came downstairs and what he saw stunned him. "Sasori, I thought you were dead!" Sasori looked at the confused man expressionlessly while he replied, "It has been a long time I suppose, but I do not have time for your useless babbling." Sasori said as he appeared behind him, "Brainwashing Investigation no Jutsu." As the researcher screamed in pain, Sasori said, "Silence!" And the man immediately went silent. "Now come, we have to get out of this accursed village." Sasori said as he walked out of the door, the brainwashed researcher following closely behind as he said, "Yes master…" his uncomprehending eyes looking at Sasori. Soon they were at Sunagakure's exit and were about to leave when a man in his late teens, in a black outfit, and purple markings on his face blocked their path and said, "Not so fast, who are you and why have you come to our village?" asked Kankuro, the Puppet Master of Suna.

***

"About fucking time you got here! Do you know how it feels to be blown to bits!? I am in extreme agony you stupid over grown weed," cursed Hidan. "Well there goes my midnight snack." grumbled Zetsu as multiple Earth Clones were still removing the various rocks. "**Maybe not, we could always say that he died…"** replied Zetsu's darker personality. Hidan yelled, "Don't even think about it you plant bastard!" Zetsu looked at Hidan, as if only now realizing his presence. "Nah, Pain would skin us alive if he found out that we ate our annoying pile of parts," said Zetsu with a tinge of regret in his voice. **"Ah come on, it's just Hidan; nobody will care if we ate a toe or two," **argued Zetsu's darker side, Hidan said, _"I_ would care you cannibalistic asshole!" Zetsu looked at Hidan with annoyance, "You know Hidan, it wouldn't really be good for your health if you kept on speaking to me in such a way; after all it would be very easy to re-bury your sorry ass and just say that you couldn't be found." Zetsu said threateningly, as his darker side added, **"As well as eating a few of your limbs for a snack." **Zetsu held up the huge sack that contained most of Hidan's body parts to prove his point. A look of horror passed over Hidan's face as realized he was in no position to complain to his rescuer and said, "Zetsu-san, my oldest and dearest friend is that really necessary?" Zetsu rolled his eyes at the pathetic response and continued to grab the extremely pissed off and screaming head of Hidan by his hair and shoved him into the sack. He proceeded to melt into the ground his bulging sack with him. The Earth clones crumbled as he disappeared; leaving no trace of the Akatsuki member's presence.

***

Deidara was quickly approaching his destination. Deidara looked at the ground below with great disinterest. As he listened to the wing beats of the enormous clay owl that were flapping in a consistent motion. The terrain beneath him was changing drastically. From the lush forests of Konoha to the harsh deserts of Suna. Already most of the trees had disappeared and in their place were enormous sand dunes, along with several cactuses and dry shrubs dotting around here and there. As he looked at the deserts of Suna, his mind drifted back to his near-death experience…

_Deidara glared at Sasuke Uchiha with an intense loathing. Granted that he had severely injured himself, but he still eliminated one of his greatest arts, his C4 Garunda. And to make the insult worse, he was about to be beaten by an Uchiha boy. "Fuck that!" thought Deidara angrily. Deidara knew he had to use his greatest piece of art to kill this Uchiha brat. Deidara felt a twinge of regret, he wanted to use this on Itachi Uchiha, "I guess I'll just have to settle for his brother" Deidara thought sadistically. Deidara looked at Sasuke with contempt and said, "Be proud, for you will die by the hands of my greatest master piece!" a huge smile spreading of his face. As he grabbed clay from his bag, he started to force his Chakra into his ring. Which he knew would make one of Pain's clones. He realized just how lucky he was, for he had the only Akatsuki ring that had not been worn before, so no other Chakra signatures had been created. The realization that if he hadn't had the only unworn ring, he wouldn't be able to make the clone, he would have most certainly have died was disheartening to say the least. Fortunately he had the only ring, an enormous grin spread across his face as he now knew he had found a loop-pole for his greatest work of art. "I'll see you in hell, Uchiha brat!" Deidara shouted as he took out an enormous clay ball from his clay-bag. "Replacement Jutsu," thought Deidara as at that switched places from his Clone replica and took his Akatsuki ring. As he disappeared from the fight scene, he felt an enormous amount of fatigue, the fact that he had used 90% of his Chakra to create his clone was enough to make anyone collapse from exhaustion. But Deidara knew that he had no time for rest as he could faintly hear the clone Deidara shouting, "CO, Ultimate Art!" Moments later he was knocked back from the massive explosion of his most prized achievement, the greatest piece of art the world had ever seen. Deidara slammed into a tree. Although badly beaten and totally exhausted; he was still alive and with intense joy, as he realized that Sasuke Uchiha was now dead. Just before going unconscious he thought with pride, "That's one less Uchiha from the world." A cold and insane chuckle escaped his lips as he thought that one of his most loathed enemies was now a pile of ash._

Deidara cursed his ignorance; for now he realized that Sasuke Uchiha was still alive and had seen the thing he had wished to see the most; his greatest piece of art. Deidara pushed those thoughts out of his mind as he saw the Village Hidden in the Sands in view, it's buildings illuminated by a giant full moon that cast an eerie light down at the unsuspecting village. "Well, I better pay Sasori no Danna a visit, hm," Deidara said, an enormous grin forming on the clay-lover's face.

***

Kakuzu raced though the Konoha Mortuary; already people have discovered his and Itachi's disappearances. As he passed a deserted hallway a figure blocked the way. He realized that it was none other then Izumo Kamizuki, one of the few who had fought him and lived to tell about it. Kakuzu was determined to change that very quickly. "You," Kakuzu growled as he glared at Izumo with an intense hatred. Izumo was stunned; just moments ago he had been making his usually shift as a guard to the Konoha Mortuary. What he saw as he passed the corner of the hall filled him with an immediate dread. For what he saw was the battered and bruised body of Kakuzu with the corpse of Itachi Uchiha in one hand and a triple-bladed scythe in the other and was glaring daggers at Izumo. Izumo knew that he couldn't run from this monster or call for help before he killed him. He was over come with a grim acceptance that he probably wouldn't make it out of this place alive.

***

Kisame was surprised to see his sword slashing into thin air, slamming into the hard concrete. Kisame barely managed to free his sword out of the shattered remains of the concrete, to block a powerful kick from Konoha's Prideful Green Beast, as he said, "Leaf Strong Whirlwind!" Kisame leaped back into the water and shouted, "_Suiton: Suikōdan no Jutsu_!" A giant burst of water in the shape of a shark rushed towards Gai. Gai quickly dodged and ran toward Kisame and threw a punch at the shark-man. As it hit him, Kisame splattered into water. "Shit, a water clone!" Gai muttered as he desperately looked for his opponent. Suddenly he heard a swishing sound behind him. He quickly dodged Kisame's sword and leaped back on to a small viaduct. Gai realized he couldn't hope to beat his opponent at this level or speed. _So, I guess I'll have to resort to __**that**_. Thought Gai grimly as he slowly reached toward his knee's and took off his orange weights and threw each into the water. Kisame smirked at his opponent's stupidity and arrogance as he said, "Might Guy, do you possibly think that losing a couple of pounds of weight will change anything?" As the weights hit the water Kisame was startled as a massive explosion of water obscured Guy from view. Suddenly Kisame soared into the air from an uppercut from Gai as he said, "Front Lotus" as he grabbed Kisame in a massive bear and slammed Kisame into the ground, making a massive crater in the concrete. Gai was covered with water as Kisame's water clone reverted back to water. Gai cursed, as he realized even with his enhanced speed he still didn't manage to severely injure the former Swordsman of the Mist. From his cover in the many trees of Konoha, Kisame silently cursed and clutched his rib cage. _Now you will have to pay for both the two kicks __**and**__ a few broken ribs, _thought Kisame furiously as he winced at the pain of his broken ribs. _Two can play at this game,_ Thought Kisame with a big grin as he quickly left his hiding place and jumped back onto the river and faced Gai. "I must be slipping, to think you actually broke a few ribs." He said with contempt, glaring at Konoha's Green Beast. "Well, I think it's time for me to take this battle seriously." Kisame said with a grin. Just as he said those words, an intense wave of charka rippled the water where Kisame was standing. Gai gravely pulled out his two nun-chucks; Gai knew then and there he would have to use every trick up his sleeve to survive this battle.

***

As Kakashi dodged another barrage of Paper Shuriken, after a lot of analyze by his Sharingan eye, he started to realize that, although these Paper Shuriken were just as hazardous as ordinary shuriken if not more dangerous; it was still paper, _then maybe…_ thought Kakashi. As Kakashi dodged a couple of Paper Spears, various Paper Swords stabbed Kakashi from behind, a gasp of pain escaped from Kakashi as he collapsed onto the cold concrete. Konan slowly walked up to the fallen Leaf Ninja and said coldly, "You never had a chance from the start, Kakashi Hayate," Suddenly the body of Kakashi poofed into a log. Konan eyes widened as she heard from behind, the voice of Kakashi saying, "Katon: _Gōkakyu no Jutsu._ An enormous fireball swallowed Konan and her various Paper weapons into its inferno.

***

Madara chuckled as Sai charged at him and plunged his katana into Madara's stomach only to have his weapon phased right though him. Madara quickly took advantage of this opportunity and slammed his fist into the boy's head. It immediately spattered into a large puddle of ink. Seemly unsurprised he continued to block the Hyuuga's Gentle Fist punch with his hand and stared into the Hyuuga's pupil less eyes with his Sharingan eyes. Suddenly Neji felt an excruciating pain radiating from his entire body. Yamato realizing the danger yelled, _Mokuton no Jutsu,"_ multiple large wooden branches raced towards the two Shinobi. Madara released his Pain Genjutsu on Neji and leapt back. Madara looked at the wood with an intense loathing, Madara thought;_ I thought that accursed wood element was extinct!_ Neji was taken back to his group by Sai; Neji was still in agony at the painful Genjutsu Madara had inflicted on him. Neji ignored the pain and slowly stood up and glared at Madara. The Uchiha ignored this and said to Tenzo in a casual tone, "So, how did you of all people learn the Wood Release, I haven't seen that since my fight with the First Hokage…" This shocked the 3 Konoha ninja, as they now realized the opponent they were fighting was none other then Madara Uchiha, one of the founders of Konoha. A smirk spread across Madara's face as he said, "where are my manners, I should introduce myself, I am Madara Uchiha." He looked at the sleeping village with contempt, "Konoha… it seems like only yesterday I had summoned the Kyūbi to destroy this accursed place... Oh well, better late then never." He said threateningly as he pulled out a scroll from his baggy Akatsuki cloak. Madara released the object from the scroll, a cloud of smoke appeared, when the smoke cleared, the group of Shinobi could see Madara wielding a gigantic scythe. A huge grin formed on Madara's face as he said sadistically, "at least try to make this some what of a challenge,"

***

Pain dodged another punch from the female Sannin, a bored expression on his face. Suddenly he realized he could no longer move. Various vines and tree roots wrapped around Pain as Tsunade ran towards him and punched Pain, sending him crashing into numerous trees. It seemed as though Pain's reign of terror was already over. When the corpse of Pain suddenly poofed into a log. Tsunade cursed as she realized that it was a Substitution. As Tsunade and Kurenai were looking desperately for their opponent they abruptly heard Pain's emotionless voice behind them saying, "Summoning no Jutsu." A thick smoke temporarily obscured Tsunade's and Kurenai's sight as they saw two new figures appear out of the smoke, their Rinnegan eyes glimmering eerily in the moon light.

***

Sasori smiled at Kankuro's ignorance and said in an amused tone, "I'm hurt, Kankuro, that you don't remember me, you should at least have remembered the agony I inflicted on you or how I destroyed your puppets." Kankuro's eyes widened in surprise as he realized who this man was; he only managed to say one word, "Sasori…" His smile turned into a smirk, "In the flesh, although this time I will kill you since you've already seen too much." he said menacingly as he took out a battered scroll from his Akatsuki cloak. "You should be honored, for you will die by my greatest art." A huge puff of smoke temporarily obscured Kankuro's sight. When the smoke cleared Kankuro saw ten deadly looking puppets appear; he realized in horror that some of Sasori's puppets were Shinobi from his village long ago. Kankuro defiantly took out his scroll and summoned his three newly rebuilt puppets; Karasu, a humanoid puppet with multiple arms and three eyes on its head. Kuroari, a bulky, long headed puppet with two red devil-like horns on said head and six arms; lastly Sanshouo, a salamander-like puppet with incredible defensive power. Sasori scoffed at his over-confidence and said, "So you patched up those pieces of fire wood?" Kankuro glared at Sasori and said grimly, "I will do everything in my power to kill you and to foil your plans, even if it costs me my life." A cold chuckle escaped Sasori's lips, "It will I assure you, but unfortunately unlike last time I don't have time to toy with you, so I'll make this quick." As he said this Sasori formed multiple chakra strings and proceeded to attack Kankuro with an assortment of thrown projectiles. Kankuro quickly used Sanshouo's defensive abilities to block the various projectiles. Suddenly a feminine puppet with an enormous sword struck one of it's neck joints causing the iron shield to flew into the air but not before Sanshouo released it's hidden Senbon shooter beneath the socket which once held the shield; causing Sasori's puppet to become completely obliterated. Sasori scowled in frustration at this, as he manipulated a near by puppet to destroy Sanshouo once and for all. As it closed in, Karasu who was busy blocking multiple puppets at once with its several disconnected limbs blocking numerous attacks at once quickly detached its head and continued to shoot countless Senbon needle out of its mouth at the attacking puppet. Directing Sasori's attention on the head, who proceeded to use the nearby puppet to crush Kurusu's head into oblivion, while Sanshouo wrapped its tail around the opposing puppet, crushing it moments later. Upon its shattered remains were several exploding tags that destroyed Sanshouo instantly. Kankuro cursed as he realized if he made any more careless mistakes like this again he would surely die. As the smoke cleared he saw that some of Sasori's puppets had vanished, as he looked desperately for the assailant's puppets he heard a clattering behind him. Before he could even look behind a giant male puppet plunged it's katana into his back. Kankuro staggered; with his last bit of strength he controlled Karasu to destroy the attacking puppet. As Kankuro collapsed from the pain he managed to look up at his enemy. Sasori glared at his felled opponent with uncaring eyes as he said in an angered tone, "you owe me three puppets you bastard!" With that he grabbed Kankuro by the scruff of his shirt as he grabbed the katana and plunged the katana deeper still into his back, Kankuro screamed in agony as he tried desperately to stay alive, Sasori looked at the battered and bruised Kankuro with contempt, an idea formed inside his head, as his scowl turned into a cruel smile. "Congratulations, you have proved yourself worthy of becoming my next puppet you should feel honored, any last words before I end your suffering?" Sasori said with a smirk. At his last moments of life, only two words escaped Kankuro's lips, "Look up." Confused Sasori did just that and to his horror Kuroari sprang onto Sasori and plunged his multiple saw blades into Sasori's back. Sasori yelled in surprise, as he tore the demented puppet off him and glared at Kankuro he wanted Kankuro to pay for his insolence. But to Sasori's extreme disappointment he saw that he had died and to make the insult worse, on his face was a smug little smile. "Bastard, how dare you make a fool out of me!" Sasori screamed at the dead corpse of Kankuro. Cursing Kankuro to the deepest pits of hell, he picked up the corpse of Kankuro and his puppets and sealed them inside a scroll along with his own puppets. Thankful nobody saw that pitiful display of weakness, a wave of relief his Sasori as he knew that his already ruined reputation would become even worse if anyone at Akatsuki found out that he had been tricked by a boy. God only knows that I don't need anything else to further increase my humiliation, said Sasori bitterly. He signaled to the researcher to come out of his hiding place and follow him. As he walked out of Suna's entrance he heard someone laughing above him; to his horror he saw that Deidara had seen the entire battle. As Deidara landed, he said with a chuckle."My my Sasori no Danna, first you get beaten by a little girl and your grandma, now you were just tricked by a little boy, you must be slipping, hm." Sasori glared at Deidara, "Shut the hell up Deidara and let's just get out of this hellhole." Sasori said as he and the researcher jumped on the back of the giant clay bird. As the clay bird flew off into the distance Sasori did not feel a twinge of sorrow for the village he left behind…

***

Kakuzu wasted no time to attack Izumo with his various threads, flinging the scythe and the corpse of Itachi on either wall. Izumo quickly dodged the pitch black tendrils as he threw a kunai at Kakuzu. Said person quickly caught the kunai with his threads and threw it back at his opponent. As the kunai scratched his arm, Izumo ignored the pain, as he yelled, "_Suiton: Suiryūben" _as multiple water whips appeared from the moisture in the air, colliding with Kakuzu's threads slicing them in half. As the tendrils retreated a noise from behind was heard. Izumo knew what was about to happen a second before it actually did and said, Suiton: Mizu Tate!" as a water shield formed out of the water whips. Kakuzu's blackened fist connected to the shield and to Izumo's dismay and astonishment Kakuzu broke though and slammed into his stomach. An intense pain sprang from Izumo's ribs as he slammed into a nearby wall. Izumo knew he should be thankful that he was still alive, for if the water shield hadn't weakened Kakuzu's punch he would already be dead. As he got up he realized that Kakuzu had disappeared and for a moment he hoped he might have gone. Alas, that hope was short lived as several black threads wrapped around Izumo's arms and legs. Izumo was over come with a grim acceptance as he was dragged across the floor. As he reached Kakuzu, he knew what was about to happen next as he closed his eyes and braced himself for an intense pain. He felt various threads attach to his chest and felt the intense agony of having his own heart ripped out of him. The screams of pain were short lived as he soon died from the horrific transplant. Upon his back another mask formed, as he looked at the corpse of Izumo coldly. "Not even a challenge," said in an expressionless tone. Kakuzu took one last glance at the fallen Leaf Chunin, as he picked up the body of Itachi Uchiha and Hidan's scythe and finally left the mortuary and into the sleeping village of Konoha but not before raising his left hand and saying to his ring, "Mission is complete, I repeat mission is complete."

***

Zetsu reappeared on the out skirts of Konoha, the big bulging bag could be heard shouting immensely foul curses. Zetsu longed to just swallow the limbs and other body parts, to just get rid of all that annoying screaming. Zetsu sighed, as much as he wished it; Zetsu knew that he couldn't so much as let a single finger be eaten. Ignoring the screams and curses of Hidan he raised his right hand and said to the ring, "Pain-Sama, Objective recovered, mission is successful, I repeat, objective recovered, mission is successful."

***

Kakashi was about to walk away from the battle field when he realized he couldn't move. He saw to his immense surprise, that various thick sheets of paper covered his lower half of his body. The emotionless and sweet voice of Konan could be heard from above saying, "Did you really think that a few bursts of flames would do anything?" Kakashi looked up and saw Konan with two enormous snow-white wings, which were flapping vigorously to stay air born. "I suppose not, but you never know." Kakashi said calmly. Konan glared at his opponent as she said in her impassive voice, "Die," Konan dropped to the ground as her paper wings transformed into various Paper Weapons that proceeded to descend upon the Copy Ninja. Before the Paper Weapons could skewer Kakashi, Kakashi's three tomoe turning more pin-wheel like as he yelled, "Kumoi!" The opposing weapons disappeared as a black hole like attack swallowed them into another dimension. Then he disappeared into the ground; her paper prison now useless, headed for its controller, Konan, forming into angelic white wings flapping vigorously to stay in the air. Konan could faintly hear him say, "_Doton: Dochū Eigyo no Jutsu."_ Konan cursed as she looked for the Copy Ninja. The voice of Kakashi Hayate could be heard from behind saying, "_Suiton: Taihōdan_." A huge blast of water came out of Kakashi's mouth; the blast completely soaking the surprised Kunochi. Konan widened her eyes in shock as she fell to the ground, her paper wings turning into watery mush. Before she plummeted to the ground she landed onto her feet. In desperation she used the last of her dry paper weapons to attack Kakashi. A few tore into the stomach; although it did not hit any vital organs to the dismay of Konan. A look of fear passed across the beautiful face of Konan as she realized she was trapped. Kakashi looked at the female Akatsuki member with contempt as he said, "You put up a good fight, unfortunately the fact that you are an S-class criminal in Akatsuki condemns you to a swift execution by my hand." Upon saying those words bluish electricity compressed into his right hand. "What is that?" Konan said, with a twinge of fear in her voice. "_Raikiri,_" said Kakashi as he broke into a run heading towards the blue haired woman. "Die," said Kakashi when he was just about to plunge his Lightning Blade into her heart. Just before it hit her a blocky figure took the blast. Although instead of collapsing over dead, he simply glared at Kakashi, "Do all Konoha men treat women in such a way, no I suppose it is just a bastard like you, Kakashi." Kakuzu said with contempt, his Jade green eyes glowing sinisterly in the moon light.

***

Sparks flew as Kisame's sword clashed with Gai's nun-chucks. Gai quickly threw a kunai at Kisame who instantaneous blocked it with his sword, only to find that an exploding tag was attached to it. Kisame knew he didn't have time to dodge it so he released the chakra from his feet and dropped into the water with a splash. The exploding tag went off with a boom as Kisame quickly swam to the surface of the water and quickly rose from the water's surface. Various splashing sounds came from behind, Gai yelled, "Dynamic Entry!" a powerful kick dispersed Kisame's water clone. Upon realizing this Gai quickly retreated from the water and onto the land again. Suddenly Kisame sprang from the water and swung his giant sword, Samehada at him; bluish chakra radiating from the sword. Gai tried to block the swing with one of his nun-chucks, only for it to split in half a second later, with Gai in the cross fire. Gai clutched his shoulder, streams of blood dripped from the deep cuts that protruded from his shoulder. Gai refused to scream in pain in front of this monster, so instead of collapsing in pain Gai quickly swung his last remaining nun-chuck with all his might at his left arm. Kisame screamed in pain and rage as his shoulder dislocated from its socket. Gai drew back, but not quickly enough for Kisame to slash at his chest and grabbed his nun-chuck and broke it in half in his rage. An intense pain radiated from Gai's body as he tried desperately to stay conscious. Kisame ran at Gai and slammed his hilt into his stomach, causing Gai to cough up blood. Kisame grinned despite himself, for he knew his opponent was on his last ropes. Kisame's grin turned into an arrogant smirk, "Well, I admit you got a few lucky shots here and there…" Kisame said, as he quickly popped his dislocated shoulder back into place. "But in the end you lost, you never stood a chance against me and when I'm finished with you I'll kill that mini look-alike just because he reminds me of you." Kisame said with a sadistic laugh. _Lee…_ thought Gai weakly; as he realized that he was going to kill his star pupil and student he knew then and there that if he didn't do something soon he would stay true to his word. _I swore to myself I would never use this, I never liked taking the easy way out… _Guy thought shamefully, already hating himself for resorting to _that._ "This is the end for you, you spandex wearing freak," Kisame said as he raised his gigantic sword, Samehada slowly, if only to cause Gai to fall into an even deeper despair. _But I must resort to it to protect Lee from this monster,_ thought Gai grimly. "Now die!" Kisame screamed as he quickly swung his sword at his fallen opponent and slicing Might Guy to bits.

***

As the smoke cleared two men appeared; The Deva path was the first one that could be seen when the smoke cleared, it was obviously the leader of the three by the way he held himself, he was a male of moderate height with medium length bright orange spiky hair, six piercings and a metal bar through each ear, three studs through the side of his upper nose and one spike stud on each end of his bottom lip, underneath the Akatsuki cloak Tsunade could faintly see a beaded necklace. The Naraka path was the second one to be seen; he was a very tall stocky muscular man with bright orange spiky hair, with triple bar ear piercings, a stud on his upper nose, a stud on his shoulders near his neck, and a row of studs diagonally down each cheek. Although different in appearance all three had the Rinnegan eyes. The group wasted no time to attack the Kunochi, as the leader of the group said,"_Suiton: Mizurappa"_ A strong jet of water rushed towards Tsunade and Kurenai. Although Tsunade was able to dodge in time Kurenai was hit and slammed into a tree, knocking her unconscious instantly. Tsunade realizing the danger that her friend was in made a shadow clone; which proceeded to grab the unconscious Kunochi and retreat to safety. Unfortunately for Tsunade, she did not have that choice. From behind each of the 3 paths took out thin black long-bladed swords that cast a sinister aura of power. Tsunade jumped high into the air as the three slashed their blades in all opposing direction. As she fell down she raised her foreleg and said, "Painful Sky Leg," a falling axe kick crated an enormous crater in the ground. As the dust settled, the familiar voice of the Human Path could be heard saying, "Summoning no Jutsu!" To her dismay she saw that several creatures had been summoned, their Rinnegan eyes glowing menacingly. Among these animals were a giant panda, a giant bird with a beak in the shape of a drill, a giant Ram, a giant Rhino, and a gigantic multi-headed dog. Tsunade, thinking fast quickly leapt back and said, "Summoning no Jutsu!" slamming her palm into the ground and a cloud of smoke appeared; obscuring the Pain bodies vision. As the smoke disappeared, a gigantic slug towered over the Pain bodies as well as most of the animals, only the multi-headed dog came close to matching the slug's size. On the slug's back Tsunade stood, her face grim as she said in a grave tone to her slug friend, "This may be the end, are you with me, Katsuyu?" A clear feminine voice could be heard below her say, "I'm with until the end Tsunade." A small smile could be seen on her face as she looked at her powerful opponents and yelled, "I will do anything, even sacrifice my life to stop you! Konoha's Will of Fire shall burn more brightly then before!" As she said this Katsuya said, "_Zesshi Nensan" _an enormous spray of acid soared at the group of villains, most dodged the attack, although the giant Rhino was not so lucky. The howls of pain from the animal as it dissolved echoed though out the surrounding trees. The giant bird wasted no time to attack, its beak started rotating at intense speeds and the bird dive bombed at Tsunade. She jumped back and let the bird hit the slug; the gasp of pain from Katsuyu could be heard from below. She ignored the pain and kept spraying the acid to hold off Tsunade's enemies for the time being. Before the bird could take flight again Tsunade charged at the beast and slammed her fist into the bird's back splitting the bird's spine in half and killing it instantly, although not before it dug its claws into Tsunade's shoulder. Tsunade grimaced in pain as she used her medical Ninjutsu to heal her and Katsuyu's injuries. While her back was turned Deva Path appeared from behind and plunged his black sword into Tsunade's back. It poofed into a log on impact; nonchalantly, Deva Path blocked Tsunade's punch with the blunt of his blade. To Tsunade's surprise, she saw that the sword absorbed her chakra infused punch. The giant Rhino charged up Katsuyu's back and headed straight for Tsunade. Tsunade jumped down to the ground and said, "Now Katsuyu," Katsuyu voice could be heard saying,"_Katsuyu Daibunretsu,"_ Katsuyu's body began to divide and form smaller versions of slug Katsuyu's. The Rhino quickly fell to its death, landing with a big thud; although they reassembled a moment later and took on the giant multi-headed dog. Tsunade's hands glowed light green; she then ran towards the Animal Path trying to kill him before the remaining animals could cause anymore damage. Just as she was about to slam he fist into the back of the unsuspecting Animal Path, the giant panda appeared in front of it's master, taking the blast. Black smoke briefly obscured both Tsunade's and each Path's vision, before it cleared Deva path heard Kakuzu's voice from his ring saying, "Mission is complete, I repeat mission is complete." Only a few seconds later Zetsu's voice could be heard saying, "Pain-Sama, Objective recovered, mission is successful, I repeat, objective recovered, mission is successful." Pain responded by forcing a small amount of chakra into his ring and said, "Mission is complete, I repeat mission is complete fall back immediately." When the smoke cleared it could be seen that the panda was not injured as its skin had hardened and it attacked immediately afterwards with a swipe from its rock hard claw. Tsunade couldn't dodge the attack and watched as it hit her head on. She soared into an opposing tree and almost fell consciousness. She quickly shook off the pain in her stomach, although not quickly enough; as the giant panda bear and Deva Path attacked with their deadly chakra consuming blades and rock hard and razor sharp claws. She managed to dodge the panda bear's claws and slammed her fist into the giant bear with such intensity that is died only moments later; although the victory was short lived as Deva Path stabbed his sword right through Tsunade's chest. Tsunade coughed up some blood as she felt wave upon wave of agony radiating from her body. She knew then and there that even her Medical Ninjutsu could hear such a wound by it's self. "Now, tell me where Naruto is and I might consider letting you live to see another day," Said the Deva Path, a hint of menace in his voice. In between ragged gasps of pain she managed to say, "Not a chance in hell, you bastard!" Pain sighed, "Defiant to the very end I see, very well then, I will try to make this as painless as possible." He said as he slowly took out his blade and said just before he was about behead the Slug Sannin. "You are a failure, you could not even protect your village or stop me, you are even more foolish then your pathetic friend Jiraiya who thought he could kill me." Tsunade perked up as he heard him insult his best friend and a wave of fury thrummed through her entire body as she thought gravely, _I have to stop this monster and avenge my friend, I guess I'll have to use to use my most powerful Ninjutsu , sorry Shizune I know how you hate me using that…_ She said quietly, "_Sōzō Saisei,_" Her blue diamond shaped mark on her fore head began to spread out through her entire body turning into a dark purple It disappeared as fast as it had appeared although to the Deva Path's astonishment he saw that her wounds had completely healed. An instant later, Tsunade landed a bone-crushing punch to the Animal Path's back, making him crash into multiple trees; instantly breaking his spine. The giant dog who had only moments before was about to give the finishing blow to Katsuyu; immediately vanished in a puff of smoke. The Deva Pain cursed as he saw that one of his most powerful bodies was completely obliterated. He signaled the Naraka Path to summon his King of Hell to heal him. Deva Path knew that the only hope for winning was to keep the Medical Kunochi busy. Just as Tsunade ran towards Naraka Path, Deva Path says, "Banshō Ten'in, '" Tsunade felt herself being dragged towards Pain; said person had his chakra consuming blade out. Tsunade gasped in pain as the blade plunged into her stomach.

***

Kisame savored his moment of victory and was about to turn and walk away; when suddenly he found to his immense surprise that the corpse of Might Guy was now just a splintered log. From behind he could hear his most hated enemy saying, "Gate of Healing, open! Gate of Life, open! Gate of Harm, open! Gate of Limit, open!" As Gai said this, a massive wave of chakra, which blasted Kisame into a tree and to his astonishment he saw that Gai's skin had turned red. Gai was surrounded by an intense green chakra, cement breaking away, as Kisame, for the first time in his entire life felt an emotion he never thought was possible to feel, fear; "Gate of View, open! Gate of Wonder, open!" As Gai finished, he slammed his fist into the ground and created a massive crater. Kisame was launched in the air, Gai disappeared from sight. Gai appeared right in front of him and in vain Kisame tried to slash his sword as Gai, who dodged it and broke his opponent's right hand, which made Kisame drop his sword into the river below. Before Kisame could even scream in pain, Gai hit him with a barrage of lightning fast punches. Kisame was hit back and forth like a ping pong ball, Kisame knew then and there that he couldn't take anymore of this, already his entire right arm was broken in multiple places, most of his ribs were cracked and broken, his teeth have become practically non-existent, most of his toes were broken, and the internal bleeding and excessive burn marks from the speed and friction of his punches weren't doing any favors for him either. Gai screamed, "Konoha Lotus!" where he grabbed Kisame and pile-drived it into the concrete; where a massive crater appeared destroying much of the landscape. Gai collapsed onto one knee from exhaustion at having used 7 of the 8 inner gates. It was extremely exhausting as well as dangerous to one's health to use that many gates at once. Gai grimaced as the intense pain from his torn muscle tissues. "It's finally over," Gai said in a relieved tone. The relief was quickly shattered when the familiar voice of Kisame could be heard from behind saying, "Not quite." Gai turned around and saw the battered and bruised form of Kisame glaring at him with an intense hatred, sword in hand and ready to give the finishing blow. Just as he was about to end the life of Konoha's Green Beast, the emotionless voice of Pain could be heard coming from Kisame's ring saying, "Mission is complete, I repeat mission is complete fall back immediately." Kisame cursed as he looked at Gai longingly; Gai knew all to well he was fighting every instinct in his body not to tear him to shreds then and there. Kisame turned his back on him and said with contempt and regret, "you don't know how lucky you really are, although next time I assure you I **will** kill you, but unfortunately not today." As he said those words he disappeared in a burst of water. As he reappeared on the outskirts of Konoha he collapsed beside Zetsu, who looked at his ally with concern. Before he fell unconscious he replayed the events that had made him survive…

_As he soared up into the sky, receiving devastating punches from an insanely powerful Gai, Kisame realized that if he didn't do something soon he would most certainly die. Kisame refused to be killed by this spandex wearing freak, with the last amount of his strength he did a one handed seal and made one of his most powerful Jutsu, a highly developed water armor Jutsu, that he called, Atmospheric Armor, which uses the moisture from the atmosphere to create a thin layer of condensed water that softens the blows of any attack to such a degree that one could only feel a slight tap from the hardest of punches and is neigh indestructible because the atmosphere has an infinite amount of water. Although he soon realized that even his highly developed armor could not fully protect him. As Gai slammed him into the ground head first he transferred most of the armor's water to his head; thus making the impact softer. It saved Kisame from an instant death, but that left most of his body to receive the trauma of the attack. Kisame gasped in pain as his left thigh bone broke as well as his left arm, which broke in several places. He quickly used the remaining water to make a very convincing clone and used his Dochū Senkō, to burrow underneath the ground and break into the nearby river. Before slipping out of the hole he had created he used his Earth Ninjutsu to cover up the hole to hide his presence. Kisame proceeded to swim to the bottom of the river and grab his great sword Samehada with his left hand. He ignored the pain from his broken arm, which was caused by Might Gai and quietly rose up from the water. He willed the water to slowly rise until it reached the guard rail where he quietly landed on his feet. As Kisame raised Samehada to give the finishing blow he could hear, "it's finally over." Kisame couldn't bare his most hated enemy thinking he won. "Not quite." Kisame spat…_

***

Kakuzu tried to wrap his tentacle-like threads around Kakashi, although he jumped away just as it was about to crush his body. Kakuzu quickly released a mask with various blue markings on it from his back, which formed into a bear-like shape composed of various dark threads and a mask in the shape of a bear. This monstrosity proceeded to attack Kakashi with various Water based Ninjutsu. Kakashi was surprised at how Kakuzu could possible be alive. "I have to say Kakuzu; you have a strong will to live," said Kakashi calmly, as he dodged another blast of water. "What can I say, I have a knack for surviving," said Kakuzu coldly, as he charged at the Copy Ninja and threw a punch at him. Kakashi dodged and pulled out a kunai with an exploding tag on it and threw it at the bear like monstrosity. The kunai exploded on contact and black smoke clouded Kakuzu's vision. The sound of a thousand chirping birds could be heard from behind Kakuzu. Kakuzu signaled his bear-like monstrosity to cover Konan. Before Kakuzu could fall back, Kakashi's Lightning blade went though Kakuzu's stomach. Kakashi cursed as he realized that he missed. Kakuzu punched Kakashi in the stomach, which hit him dead on, as he caught himself before slamming into the ground, Kakuzu made a grab for Kakashi with his thread extended arms, although Kakashi leapt back before it got a hold of him. As the smoke cleared, Kakuzu willed his threads to stitch up his wound. As Kakuzu was about to begin his battle with Kakashi once more, the voice of Pain could be heard from his ring saying, "Mission is complete; I repeat mission is complete fall back immediately." Kakuzu cursed as he realized he would have to wreak his revenge another day. Kakuzu willed his thread creature to keep Kakashi busy as he prepared to leave. Kakuzu grabbed Hidan's scythe and put it on his back, as he grabbed the corpse of Itachi Uchiha with one hand and grabbed the paralyzed form of Konan with the other. As the masked monster re-attached to Kakuzu's back, "Good bye Copy Ninja, next time we meet, I will get the retribution I deserve." Kakuzu said angrily, as he, with Konan and the corpse of Itachi Uchiha vanished in a swirl of leaves.

***

Madara swung his giant scythe at the opposing Leaf Shinobi. Tenzo said_," Mokuton: Mokujōheki; Viz"_a large wooden half dome shielded the group from the powerful attack. A loud thud could be heard, Tenzo released his wooden dome and controlled his newly created roots to try and capture Madara. Said person jumped out of the way of the attack and said, "_Katon: Gōryūka no Jutsu" _several dragon-shaped fireballs headed for Neji, Sai, and Tenzo. The inferno turned Tenzo's tree roots to ash, the Leaf Shinobi dodged the lethal blasts of fire and proceeded to attack. Sai took out a long stripe of paper and drew an ink bird and yelled, "_Chōjū Giga,"_ the ink image tore transformed into a giant sized replica and Sai landed on its back. Sai continued by drawing multiple lion, bears, and other predatory creatures from a scroll with increasing vigor. When he was done he said, "_Chōjū Giga,"_ Sai's ink creations began to fall down to Madara, eager to kill. Many were destroyed with a single swing from his scythe. A few managed to bypass the scythe and attacked, although each attack phased right though the Uchiha. Madara chuckled at this pathetic excuse for an attack, as he destroyed the last of the ink creatures with another swing of his scythe, he realized he couldn't move. Tree roots wrapped around his arms and legs; for the first time in the entire battle Madara was actually surprised. Neji appeared in front of him, Neji who avoided looking into Madara's eyes said to Madara in a grim tone, "Die Madara Uchiha, _Hakke Sanbyakurokujūichi Shiki!"_ Neji began hitting all of Madara's Chakra Points at an increasing speed, as he finished his powerful attack, the wooden restraints broke and Madara slammed into the ground. Neji felt a wave of fatigue set in and collapsed. Tenzo sighed in relief as Madara hit the ground; Sai dispelled his ink bird and helped Neji up. "Are you all right?" asked a concerned Sai, "Fine, I'm just glad it's finally over," Neji said in an exhausted tone. "Over?" the voice of Madara echoed through the surrounding trees. The group of Leaf Shinobi looked at the raising body of Madara Uchiha in horror and astonishment, his Sharingan eyes glowing with an intense loathing. "It's far from over," Madara spat. Neji looked the most surprised of all, "But how are you still alive?" Neji said, "Nobody has ever survived having all their chakra gateways blocked at once." Madara glared at his opponents "it seems as if I'm the first," Madara said as he picked up his enormous scythe. "Now that you've really pissed me off, I guess it's time for me to stop toying with you." This shocked the Konoha Shinobi immensely, for they had been giving their all. "Be honored, for you will see the Uchiha Clan's most powerful technique." Madara said as his eyes began to change yet again; it became a combined version of two Sharingans. Before Madara could finish off the Leaf Shinobi with one of his Mangkyou Sharingan Techniques, the nonchalant voice of Pain could be heard from Madara's ring saying, "Mission is complete, I repeat mission is complete fall back immediately." Madara frowned in disappointment, "You don't know how lucky you are." Madara said as he disappeared via his teleportation Jutsu.

***

Tsunade slammed her fist into Deva Path's left shoulder, dislocating it immediately, as his black sword plunged into her stomach. Pain let go of his chakra consuming sword and stumbled back a few feet although he managed to catch himself before he slammed into a tree, "Bitch," said Pain in anger. Tsunade ignored this comment as she ripped out Pain's sword and proceeded to break the accursed blade in two. Pain growled in frustration as he saw before his very eyes his favorite weapon destroyed by Tsunade. Just before Deva Path resumed the battle once more he saw that the Animal path was healed. Deva Path rejoined Naraka Path and Animal Path and they all said in perfect synchronization, "Good bye Tsunade, next time we meet you, you will die by our hands." Deva Path threw a smoke bomb and when it cleared the Akatsuki leader was no where to be seen. Tsunade collapsed as the side effects of her Reincarnation Jutsu began to take affect on her, her youthful form in her early twenties began to change into her real, fifty year old body. Although severely weakened, Tsunade had just enough strength to go to her office; when she arrived she saw that it had been ransacked. A window had been broken, various papers were spread across the floor, lamps were broken, cupboards opened hastily and strewn across the room, and she saw that her file on Naruto and his whereabouts were no where to be seen. Although instead of panicking, a small smile appeared on her aged lips as she looked out at the window and at the rising morning sun. "So, Pain has taken the bait…" Tsunade said in a relieved tone.

***

The clay bird flapped its wings in a continuous motion, while Deidara looked at Sasori curiously and said in an inquiring tone, "So, Sasori no Danna, how are you still alive, hm?" Sasori looked at Deidara annoyingly and said, "I can say the same for you brat." Deidara wore his familiar, as he said, "Oh come on Sasori no Danna, I'll tell you how I escaped death if you tell me how you did, hm," Sasori said in a cold tone, "Why the hell would I care whether you lived or died?" Deidara ignored this statement, he had heard such things many times in his partnership with Sasori and he got used to it. "Come on now Sasori, I'll even go first, I used my ring's chakra residual imprint on my ring to make one of Leader-Sama's clones of me, then I simply used a replacement Jutsu, I think it's brilliant if I do so say so myself, I found a loophole for me to use my greatest art, hm," Deidara said with a large amount of pride in his voice. "Tch, is that all?" Sasori said in disdain, "That was far too simple and subtle." Deidara glared at Sasori and said in an annoyed tone, "And you have a better way?" Sasori smiled smugly and said, "Let's just say I had a lot of brains to think up such a clever way to cheat death, much more complex and artistic then your way." Deidara rolled his eyes at his partner's arrogance and said, "What ever you say Sasori no Danna, what ever you say, hm." Just before Sasori could say a rebuttal for his partner's insolent statement the clay bird they had been riding on landed onto the grassy grounds of the forest floor, not far from Konoha. Nearby several figures appeared out of the gloom, all in baggy black cloaks with red clouds dotting across them. Some of them looked more intact then others, a newly awake and barely conscious Kisame seemed to be one of the most battered members, even the corpse of Itachi seemed in better condition then the shark man. Deva Path looked at the new arrivals emotionlessly; his other bodies had long been dismissed to the sealing machine in one of his many bases. Pain looked at the duo and said, "Good work Sasori, Deidara," Nodding to both Sasori and Deidara. "Let us begin reviving our former Akatsuki member, but first…" Pain ushered Kisame to come towards him. "You should better heal Kisame, it seems he was a bit too overconfident in his abilities and got beaten to a bloody pulp," Pain said with mild amusement in his voice. Kisame was embarrassed too say the least, and cursed Gai a thousand times over for what he had done to him, as he collapsed on to one knee gasping in ragged breaths. Sasori signaled the mind controlled researcher to commence with the healing, although before the Researcher could heal him, Kisame growled, "I don't need anyone's help!" Kisame growled as he lashed out at the mind-controlled man; although severely wounded, Kisame would survive, although Kisame still looked extremely pissed off. Pain shrugged uncaringly, as he addressed Sasori and said, "Now let's proceed to resurrect our fellow Akatsuki member." Without a word an unmasked and uncloaked Kakuzu laid the body of Itachi Uchiha across the grassy ground. Sasori signaled his brain-washed minion to commence with the Resurrection Technique. A bluish glow appeared on the hands of the researcher as he bent over Itachi's corpse and started to give his own life force to revive the once fearsome Uchiha. As he finished, the researcher collapsed dead, the body of Itachi Uchiha began to stir; he slowly opened his Sharingan eyes, which were glowing profusely in the darkness. Itachi Uchiha, the brother of Sasuke Uchiha, slaughterer of the Uchiha Clan, and prominent member of Akatsuki, lived again.


	4. Chapter 4

Akatsuki's Revival

Itachi was surprised to say the least; the last thing he remembered was a sudden black void from his blindness and giving his last words to Sasuke. But now, he found that his once quiet world had been shattered by a consistent thumping noise. Not only that, but to his great annoyance he found that he was now warm and that he felt as though he was lying on a hard piece of earth.

_Impossible,_ Itachi thought indifferently._ The dead cannot feel, the dead cannot hear, and the dead cannot see…_ But when Itachi tried to open his eyes, to emphasize his point, to his amazement he found that instead of seeing a black and endless void of blindness. He saw the night's sky, and with it, countless glittering stars and a large yellowish white colored moon. At first, Itachi couldn't believe that he could see, not to mention something as remarkable as the night sky. Itachi soon got over his shock though, and slowly got up from the cold, hard ground.

_Ground…_ Itachi thought, even this concept was new and exciting for him, although he didn't let his composure slip. As he looked down, he realized that he was now wearing a baggy, black cloak with multiple red clouds. Then the many events and memories came flooding back to him and he realized that some how, some way, he had been revived from the dead. As he shakily picked himself up, he looked around at his surroundings, he saw that he was in the lush forests of Konoha, and he saw the familiar faces of his fellow Akatsuki members, all of them staring at Itachi like an interesting exhibit.

An orange haired man with 5-ringed eyes greeted him by saying, "Welcome back Itachi Uchiha, we've been expecting you." Itachi stared at Pain indifferently; he then continued surveying the other members of his organization. He was surprised to see Sasori's, and Deidara's faces among the familiar group, because last he heard, these particular Akatsuki members were dead.

But the biggest shock was the state of his good comrade, Kisame Hoshigaki in such a ratcheted state. He seemed to be half dead and he was quite true, only his burning determination to stay alive to wreak his revenge on Might Gai, had kept him alive. Although even now he was in a better shape then he was a few hours ago. For one, all his teeth had grown back, thanks to his shark-like abilities. Like most sharks, Kisame could regrow teeth in a short amount of time. Upon seeing his newly revived friend, Kisame gave his trademark grin, signifying that he was alright. Despite himself, Itachi gave a small smile back, he had missed his friend when he had died; although, a large amount of cursing/screaming interrupted the tearful reunion.

The familiar voice of Hidan could be heard coming from a bulging sack screaming, "Aren't you forgetting something, you stupid bastards!" The group of criminals sighed at Hidan's rudeness and horrible sense of timing. With a sigh Pain signaled the newly cloaked and masked Kakuzu to commence with the arduous task of stitching the cursing Hidan back up. Without another word Kakuzu dumped the twitching remains from the large sack and began to stitch up Hidan once more. Pain then yet again turned his attention to Itachi and said, "Now, let's fill you in on what you have missed during your absence." With that Pain and Itachi strode towards a path and soon they disappeared into the darkness.

***

Tsunade was distrait to say the least, during the Akatsuki Invasion, there had been 12 casualties, including her assistant, Izumo Kamizuki. Not to mention the various high ranking Jounin such as Neji, Kurenai, and Gai. Even Kakashi was being treated for multiple wounds inflicted by the invading Akatsuki members. To make matters worse, she discovered that the body of Itachi Uchiha and the remains of Hidan were missing, along with several reports that Kakuzu had seemingly came back from the dead. She knew that left untouched, this already enormous problem would grow into a catastrophe waiting to happen.

So as soon as Tsunade recovered enough to resume her familiar twenty year old form, she called in Kakashi Hatake. An extremely skilled and trustworthy ninja capable of handling almost anything, Tsunade only hoped that he could do the task she needed him to do.

Her troubled thoughts were interrupted when a newly healed Kakashi strode into the room and asked, "You asked for me Tsunade-Sama?" Kakashi looked at Tsunade inquiringly.

Tsunade cleared her throat and replied, "Yes I did. I need you to do an S-rank mission."

If Kakashi was surprised he didn't show it, he responded in a calm tone, "Roger that, so what am I going to do?"

Tsunade answered in a gruff tone, "You will have to retrieve the corpse of Itachi Uchiha, I fear that if it is left in the hands of Akatsuki, then something horrible will happen."

Kakashi nodded nonchalantly and said before vanishing in a swirl of leaves, "You can count on me Tsunade-Sama."

Tsunade stared out at her village, and muttered to herself, "I hope I can."

***

"Easy! That hurts like a bastard!" Screeched the partly put to gathered form of Hidan.

Kakuzu sighed; he had been working on Hidan for a while now and much to his annoyance, being buried in a pit for months on end didn't change his attitude in the slightest. "Shut up you big baby, I'm doing the best I can," growled Kakuzu, stitching another finger as he said this.

"Fuck you Kakuzu!" screamed Hidan, as he winced in pain as said person reconnected his left arm to his torso.

Kakuzu glared at Hidan and said in a menacing whisper, "I swear to God Hidan, one more complaint and I'll sew your loud mouth shut."

With that, Hidan fell silent, for he knew he wasn't joking what's so ever. "Tch, whatever," Hidan looked away from his partner and sighed. He would get his revenge on that Nara boy if it was the last thing he did, he would make him pay for not only blowing him up and burying him inside a freaking pit, but also making him the laughing stock of Akatsuki. He was now the biggest joke in Akatsuki, even Deidara or Sasori had loosed to someone worth fearing, for Deidara it was the infamous Sasuke Uchiha, a prodigy in the almost extinct Uchiha Clan.

Or Sasori, who, although beaten by a little girl and his senile grandma, still had some basic talent, for Chiyo, although old, was a Master at the art of Puppet manipulation and Sakura Haruno, a multi skilled Kunochi, that had expert Medical Ninjutsu and observation skills, not to mention super strength.

Compared to that, the one who had beaten him was just a little boy that could control shadows for a few minutes. Hidan was interrupted from his musings, when he felt himself being lifted off the ground, Hidan quickly realized that his body was now completely put back together; all that was left to do was attaching Hidan's head back into his body. Excitement rushed though him as he realized that he was about to be able to move again and wouldn't be treated like a God damn animal that was incapable to bite back.

With one last stitch, Hidan at last felt feeling in his entire body, he hesitantly moved his fingers, and then realized how hungry and thirsty he really was, not to mention the various dirt and blood stains on his tattered Akatsuki cloak and body.

Without as much as a word of thanks to Kakuzu he turned his back and said to the various Akatsuki members, "If you need me, I'll be at the river washing up." With that he grabbed his new Akatsuki cloak and disappeared into the darkness.

When he finally returned from his intense bath and changed into his new Akatsuki cloak, the familiar figure of Kakuzu threw a large crimson object at him, which he immediately caught. "What the hell, Kakuzu, what the fuck was that for-"before he could finish he realized what it was. A look of surprise could be seen as he saw that it was his favorite weapon, his triple-bladed scythe. To top it off, he saw that his old chakra rope that had been severed during a surprise attack from that Nara boy had been reattached. Hidan was at a lose for words, and then Kakuzu also threw his Hidden Hot Springs headband towards him, which he caught with his other hand. Now Hidan was dumbfounded, nobody had ever done such a kind thing for him, let alone Kakuzu.

When he was finally able to clear his throat he said, "T-Thanks Kakuzu, I don't know what to say…"

Kakuzu turned his back and said, "Don't say anything because that will cost you 2 million Ryō."

Hidan face faulted and the rest of the Akatsuki sweat-dropped, Kisame whispered to Zetsu, "Well, I can't say I'm that surprised…"

Zetsu answered with a sigh, "This is certainly the kind of thing Kakuzu would do…" Zetsu's darker personality added, **"Yes, he really is a greedy asshole."**

Hidan stammered, "W-What?!"

Kakuzu faced him once more and said in a gruff tone, "You heard me, it cost 250,000 Ryō to fix that scythe, plus it looks like that scythe could sell for 750,000 Ryō in a ninja weapons store, in all 2 million Ryō."

A glimmer of outrage could be seen on Hidan's face and yelled, "But that's just 1 million Ryō, you greedy bastard!"

Kakuzu narrowed his eyes and said, "Did you really think I would give you your scythe back for nothing in return?"

Defeated, Hidan hung his head and said, "No…" Although it couldn't be seen, under his new ninja mask, Kakuzu was grinning, a sigh escaped from Hidan as he said, "You really are an asshole, you know that right?"

Kakuzu ignored this statement and with that, Kakuzu sank down onto a random tree and began counting various stacks of cash, which he had insisted on keeping the Akatsuki's finances once more, immediately after he had come to this make-shift base of operations. Hidan stalked off a few feet away, tying his headband around his neck and grabbed a rag and began to rub off the dirt on his beloved scythe…

***

Itachi and Pain walked along a heavily trodden dirt road, they didn't talk for a while or two, each looking ahead with great disinterest. Then Itachi finally asked his first question, "How long had I been out?"

Pain looked at Itachi emotionlessly and answered in his usual monotone, "About a month or so,"

If Itachi was surprised by this, he didn't show it, he continued by asking, "How is it that I'm alive and my blindness and disease are now nonexistent?"

Sharingan and Rinnegan met, the Sharingan full of inquiry, the Rinnegan full of answers, Pain answered emotionlessly, "You see, Suna had various researchers who worked endlessly for a technique that could bring back the dead, eventually a handful of these researchers discovered how to do just that, but at the cost of one's own life…"

Surprise could be shown on Itachi's face, but a second later he regained his composure, a hint of amusement could be seen on the usually emotionless face of Pain, he continued by saying, "Because of this fact, it was forbidden to use and the research was abruptly put to a stop, most researchers were executed for fear of them sharing this Jutsu with neighboring countries, bringing back unbelievably strong ninja in exchange for an insignificant and weak Shinobi. Although a few survived this extermination and hid this ability to the world, although not only could it revive the dead, it could also heal, what otherwise was an incurable disease or injury at the cost of one's own life force."

A look of confusion was shown on Itachi's face and this time it stayed, as he asked, "Then how were you able to find a researcher?"

Pain answered by saying, "When Sasori had battled with Chiyo and Sakura Haruno, a very interesting thing happened, you see, when Sasori gave Sakura a fatal wound, that could not be healed by basic Nin-Jutsu, Chiyo revealed that she and a few more Suna Shinobi could use a Reincarnation Technique, she then proceeded to heal the girls wounds immediately. When he explained this to me, I knew one of these researchers could revive you, so I asked Sasori if he knew of any such people, he said that he did, so basically after that, we decided to retrieve the researcher and our other incapacitated Akatsuki members with an invasion of both Suna and Konoha. Although against the basic belief that Kakuzu was dead, he was very much alive, he took your corpse from the Konoha Mortuary and fled to our nearby temporary base of operations, so… anymore questions?"

A look of understanding was seen on Itachi's face as he asked his last question, "Then does this mean I am immune to the effects of my Mangkyou Sharingan?"

Pain answered in a grave tone that immediately made the answer clear, "Unfortunately no, the same rules apply, this Reincarnation Technique could only heal your existing injuries or ailments and nothing more." As Pain answered that question Itachi realized they had backtracked back to their base of operations.

Before the dangerous duo separated, Itachi said in his usual monotone, "If that's the case, I guess I'll just have to improvise, Pain-Sama, if you need me I will be going in search of a suitable solution for this problem…"

A wave of understanding rushed through Pain's body as he realized what this 'solution' was, Pain said, "Very well Itachi, but be warned Itachi, I do not tolerate failure." Itachi responded with a stiff nod and disappeared in a puff of smoke.

***

Kakashi ran at an insane speed following his tracking squad. Itachi's corpse had been stolen only about a day ago by the newly revived Kakuzu and it was his job to find them. As Kakashi ran though the various oak trees, he came across a clearing, a rarity in the forests of Konoha. As he was about to move on he realized that his tracking squad had stopped. With horror, he watched them drop to the ground, unconscious or dead, he didn't know which.

"What the hell..." Kakashi muttered to himself

A blank emotionless voice echoed though the trees, "Such language Kakashi, I expected more of you then petty cursing."

Kakashi turned towards the voice and what he saw shocked him immensely, a black haired man in a black cloak with red clouds dotted across it walked out of the shadow of the trees, his eyes were red and each had three tomoe each surrounding the pupil. They glowed faintly in the semi-darkness of late afternoon, the sun falling under the mountains.

The man continued, "Do not worry, I didn't kill them," motioning towards Kakashi's fallen dog companions. "After all, I do not want to waste the unnecessary effort of killing them, when a simple Gen-Jutsu will accomplish similar results."

When Kakashi had gotten over the immediate shock of Uchiha Itachi's revival he spoke in a shaken voice, "Itachi! How in the world you still alive?!" After a moment he got over his shock and continued, "It doesn't matter, I will do everything in my power to stop you."

The man known as Itachi continued to look at Kakashi with mild amusement in his eyes, although this vanished so fast that only one with unnaturally fast eyes could have seen it.

"You cannot win" Itachi said indifferently, "No matter how hard you try; in the end I will defeat you.

The realization hit Kakashi that he was not going to be able to retreat from this battle and slowly he raised his Konoha forehead protector to reveal his famed Sharingan eye behind the covering, "Are you meaning to tell me that you will not let me escape"

One word came out of Itachi's mouth as he disappeared into the shadows, the word echoing from the surrounding trees, "Yes".

In the same moment Itachi's monotone could also be heard saying "Katon: Gaukakyu no Jutsu."

A giant fireball soared at Kakashi, who was easily able to dodge. A second later a Shadow clone attacked with a kunai, slashing the weapon at the distracted Copy-Ninja. Kakashi's arm got a nasty scratch, but he was able to dodge the second strike before it could do any further damage.

Kakashi realized what was happening a moment before it actually did and quickly jumped back. Alas it was not to be, as Itachi's monotone voice said "Bunshin Daibakuha!" Itachi's clone exploded violently and the force of the explosion smashed Kakashi into a random tree.

Another clone quickly appeared out of the shadows although before it could explode Kakashi yelled, "Kumoi!" and his Sharingan changed, becoming more pin-wheel like. Something similar to a black hole swallowed the clone before it could explode. Kakashi fell to his knees the effort, physically drained him. Itachi used this chance to move out into the open and land a devastating kick to ribs his foe's ribs, slamming Kakashi into the ground. It seemed like the battle was over.

Suddenly the prone body transformed into a log. Calmly, Itachi pulled out a kunai and blocked Kakashi's sneak attack. Sparks flew as the Uchiha's kunai connected with Kakashi's oncoming one. Without warning Itachi spoke, "Amaterasu," A black inferno erupted from his left eye, blasting straight at Kakashi.

***

As Pain returned to his temporary base, the remaining members of Akatsuki realized that Itachi was missing, looks of confusion were seen on each of the Akatsuki's member's faces, each wondering the same thing. Finally Hidan asked the one question each of the members wanted to know. "Where the hell is Itachi?"

Pain looked at the newly put together Hidan with mild annoyance as he answered, "He is completing a mission," looks of understanding could be seen on each of the Akatsuki Members faces, and the glint in Pain's eyes made it clear that he did not want to talk anymore about the subject and anyone who was foolish enough to do so would suffer the consequences. Pain continued by saying in a commanding tone, "Kakuzu, Kisame, I need you for an important task,"

Both members stood and walked towards Pain without a word, Kisame still looked worse for wear, although he seemed capable enough. Kakuzu looked as good as new and didn't look at all like he had been dead less then a day before. Both said, "Yes Pain-Sama?"

Pain said, "I need you to use your Earth Ninjutsu to create our new underground base."

Without any hesitation, Kisame raised his hands and slammed them into the ground, ignoring the pain from his broken arms/hands, he said,"_Doton, Earth rise no Jutsu,_" a small mound of earth proceeded to rise from the ground.

While Kakuzu ripped off his cloak and released his Earth element creature from his back, which proceeded to create a large hole into the mound of earth, the thread-made monstrosity continued by creating a circular tunnel leading downwards, Kisame and Kakuzu were not far behind, Kisame stabilizing the tunnel with pillars of stone and Kakuzu making sure his thread monster was doing it's job.

Soon, when the duo decided it was deep enough, they created a tunnel going straight for a few feet and then began expanding the tunnel, branching out more and more until, it became a massive circular chamber. Kisame created massive stalactites for extra effect and multiple pools of various depths and widths to collect the water that would certainly fall from the stalactites.

It may have been an unnecessary effort, but he admired his piece of work, _Besides, I don't want all those Akatsuki members to constantly ask me to provide their water,_ Kisame thought disdainfully, imagining the multiple requests and demands he would have had to fulfill.

When the chamber was done, Kakuzu and Kisame continued by creating multiple room made of stone, such as bedrooms, bathrooms, and training rooms. When that arduous task was done, the duo began to create earth made furniture for the various rooms that were created. When the two Akatsuki members were done, they signaled the leader with their ring communicators.

Up above, the remaining members waited until Kisame and Kakuzu to finish with growing impatience, finally they were given the okay to go inside, in a signal file line, the Akatsuki members entered the cave until only Madara and Pain were left, before Madara could enter, Pain stopped him and said, "Madara, I need you to place a Genjutsu on this entrance, something that can not be detectable to the human eye,"

Madara gave Pain a belittling smirk and said in with mocking respect, "Sure thing, Nagato," Pain was annoyed at his insolence to say the least, but unfortunately, he was the Akatsuki's benefactor and believe it or not, Pain was an honorable man. Without a word, Pain stalked into the foreboding abyss.

***

Kakashi knew he didn't have a hope of dodging it so he did the only thing that could save him and activated his Mangkyou Sharingan once again speaking, "Kumoi!" and again a black-hole like attack preceded to swallow Itachi's black fire inferno.

Itachi spoke, his red and black, expressionless eyes focused on Kakashi's own red eye, "Kakashi... How did you of all people learn the Mangkyou Sharingan, one of the Uchiha's most powerful and prized techniques?" he asked with contempt.

Kakashi slowly picked himself up again and answered, "I picked a few things up here and there."

Itachi glared at Kakashi with annoyance, "Such arrogance. You do not deserve to wield this power or this eye. So..." Itachi instantaneously appeared in front of Kakashi and spoke "Tsukuyomi". There was nothing Kakashi could have done to avoid it.

Just like what had happened many years before he appeared chained to a cross in a strange black and red world and two copies of Itachi appeared. The first one spoke, "Like last time you will experience excruciating pain for the next 72 hours." as he plunged a metal katana into Kakashi's stomach, Kakashi barely retained his screams of agony.

"Everything in this world within your mind...time, space, gravity, and much, much more...I control them all." The second one spoke as he plunged an identical katana into Kakashi's stomach. This time he couldn't help but scream in pain. He soon blacked out.

When he awoke he realized that multiple versions of himself in the same situation as he were scattered around the black and red world. As the Itachi's repeated the same words, "Like last time you will experience excruciating pain for the next 72 hours," then each Itachi preceded to plunge their katana into Kakashi's stomach.

The pain was multiple times worse. Kakashi howled in agony as the Itachi's spoke yet again. "Everything in this world within your mind...time, space, gravity, and much, much more...I control them all." and again the second Itachi's plunged their katana into Kakashi's stomach, and again he blacked out in pain.

When he awoke again hundreds of versions of himself were chained to a cross, each with their own pair of Itachi, all of which repeated in perfect synchronization, "Only 71 hours, 59 minutes, and 59 seconds to go," As all of them laughed coldly, as Kakashi continued to scream from the unimaginable pain radiating though his entire body.

Outside of the world of Kakashi's mind, Itachi slowly reached out with his hand towards Kakashi's Mangkyou eye. Without any hesitation he tore out the eye that Obito had once given the defeated Hatake. He pulled said eye toward his own left eye and they slowly melded together. Itachi's left eye began to distort and change into a mixed version of his and Kakashi's own Mangkyou Sharingan.

Kakashi had been released from the terrible Gen-Jutsu from the intense pain of having his eye ripped out of it's socket. Before he collapsed he drew a kunai and plunged it in the right arm of his preoccupied opponent. Itachi's eyes widened with shock and surprise as he yelled out in pain. The kunai had reached into his bone.

Hatake Kakashi once revered as one of the most powerful ninja of the entire Shinobi nation, now reduced to a mangled and bloodied image of his former self. In his final moments of life his thoughts and emotions were not of regret or pain of his stolen eye. No his final thoughts and emotions are of that of grim acceptance and worry for his students and his village.

The last thought as he left the world of the living altogether was the hope that the next generation that would take his place would remember the deeds that he did for the Village Hidden in the Leaves...

Itachi cursed loudly and at that moment wanted to cause as much pain to the Copy-Ninja as possible. To his severe disappointment he saw that Kakashi had already died from loss of blood and the instantaneous pain trauma. All he was able to do was glare at the corpse of Kakashi Hayate and, with anger and contempt he spoke, "I hope, Kakashi Hatake that you are sent to the deepest circles of hell, as was I."

He turned and calmly strode away, towards the Akatsuki's new base, leaving the body of Kakashi Hatake to rot...

***

When Pain finally saw the new Akatsuki base he was impressed to say the least. At the entrance was an enormous circular chamber, obviously the place where they would now use the Sealing Technique: Illusionary Dragon Nine Consuming Seals. After he observed the new base and was satisfied enough he walked back into the enormous circular room where he saw the familiar form of Sasori waiting for him. When he walked up to him he asked, "Sasori, what do you want?"

Sasori slowly turned to face Pain and replied in a casual voice, "It seems as though I no longer an Akatsuki ring…"

Pain looked at the bare hands of Sasori and stated in his usual monotone, "I'm afraid there is no way for Madara to hand back your ring and unfortunately there are only ten of these rings in existence, which unfortunately cannot be copied."

Instead of falling into despair, Sasori inquired, "Then you see where I'm getting at."

Pain raised an eyebrow, curious if he actually wanted to go to those lengths to get another ring. "You know I cannot send any help what so ever, correct?"

Pain looked into Sasori eyes, searching for a hint of doubt, but as always he only saw a cold indifference and a barely contained impatience. Sasori answered, "I know this, but I need a new ring, plus I have some unfinished business with Orchimaru."

A belittling chuckle escaped from Pain as he said in a patronizing voice, "You do know that deserter got the retribution he deserved, right?"

A flash of annoyance could be seen on Sasori's face but he bit his tongue and kept a calm and cool demeanor as he replied, "True, in a sense he is dead, but I have heard from various Konoha sources that his former assistant Kabuto, inserted that Snake bastard's DNA into his own body and I cannot let that go unchecked."

A frown could be seen on the otherwise emotionless face of Pain's. "This changes things… I can no longer send you on such a dangerous mission on your own."

"What!" Shouted Sasori with anger.

"Obviously if you couldn't handle a senile old woman and a little girl, you can't handle an entire village of Sound Shinobi, let alone Orchimaru, so I'm sending Deidara with you and both of you will leave at the crack of dawn tomorrow."

Even in his rage, Sasori knew when to keep his mouth shut, so he said in a stiff voice, "Of course Pain-Sama, whatever you say."

With that Sasori strode into his room, trying to ignore his severe outrage with Pain that he knew if he struck out at him, he would truly know why his name is Pain. To calm himself he released his latest work in progress, Kankuro. Although he didn't have any Gen-Jutsu or Tai-Jutsu skills of note, he was remarkably skilled at Puppet manipulation. _Although not even close to my skill_, Sasori thought arrogantly. And just like that, he was swept in his work, he had already drained all the blood and removed the organs, _Now…_ Thought Sasori with a smirk, _Lets see if I can turn this piece of trash into something beautiful._

***

When Itachi finally arrived at the camp site, he realized that everyone was gone. Although when he activated his new Eternal Mangkyou Sharingan eye, wearily and carefully closing his right eye, because unfortunately only one eye was protected from the effects of the Mangkyou Sharingan.

Still, it felt wonderful to know that he had a fresh start, no longer did he have an inevitable disease that only with the help of extremely rare medicines and advanced Jutsu's kept him alive for a little bit longer. No longer did he have to fear the effects of his Mangkyou Sharingan.

Itachi soon saw through the powerful Gen-Jutsu, that was obviously created by Madara Uchiha, the first wielder of the Mangkyou Sharingan, who he saw was leaning on the side of a large mound of earth with a large circular tunnel leading downward from the front. Madara looked at Itachi with amusement, if he was surprised to see that Itachi had received an Eternal Mangkyou Sharingan eye, he did not show it.

As Itachi walked towards to foreboding tunnel, he said without turning, "You really have a knack for lying, Madara-San. "

Madara stared into Itachi's new Eternal Sharingan eye as he replied in a mocking tone, "I don't recall,"

Itachi turned and said, 'You and I both know I did not follow any of Konoha's Elders orders, I did that, on my will and my will alone."

A glimmer of comprehension could be seen on Madara's coal black eyes, a frown appearing on his usually belittling face as he answered in a cool voice, "Oh _that_, well you see I needed to replace the absences of about half our Akatsuki members."

Itachi didn't show any emotion what-so-ever, as he stood there, looking at Madara with indifference as he continued, "So naturally I choose your brother and his little ragtag group of Missing-Nin, they seemed competent enough, but the trick was how to convince Sasuke to join the Akatsuki as our underlings. Thinking fast I made up a story as to why you didn't take his eyes and went on from there."

Finally Itachi responded as he stated, "It wouldn't have made any difference; I was already blind and dying. My love for Sasuke got the better of me and I said some condescending words to comfort my foolish little brother, it won't happen again."

Madara grin reappeared as he said in his usual patronizing voice, "As cold and heartless as ever I see."

Without another word Itachi strode into the dark abyss, Madara close behind.

***

Just before the crack of dawn, as Pain had promised, an impatient Sasori and a bedraggled Deidara stood before the imposing figure that was Pain. A giant clay bird right beside its master, already created and ready to go.

A slight breeze made each of the Akatsuki member's cloaks to flutter in the semi-darkness of early morning. The faintest glimmer of gold could be seen from the distant mountains, making the forests of Konoha sharper in clarity.

Pain looked at the Akatsuki pair with a slight interest, even though both of them had made enormous blunders in the past; he still had the upmost confidence in them, although he would never admit it to anyone.

He said in his usual monotone, "Go."

In an instant the duo jumped onto the giant clay bird, said creature vigorously flapping its wings to become airborne. Pain watched as his subordinates flew off into the rising sun, soon becoming a tiny speck and then vanishing all together. He then turned away and back into the welcoming abyss of the tunnel that lead to the new Akatsuki base.

***

As the clay bird flew farther and farther away, Sasori looked onward with impatience and anticipation. _Soon_, thought Sasori, _Soon, I will have my revenge. _

Deidara looked at his partner with a unconcerned look, he had seen this look before, when he was about to gain something after waiting for far too long. Deidara broke the silence saying, "So, Sasori No Danna, how do you like my sculpture?"

Broke from his trance, Sasori looked at the clay owl disdainfully and scoffed, "You call this piece of clay art?"

Deidara said in anger, "Well, at least it isn't made from fire wood,"

Sasori turned, a murderous gleam in his eyes, although instead of making a retort, he simply let it go and said with a sigh, "You obviously don't even know the basic concept of art,"

Deidara rolled his eyes, knowing full well the exact words he would say, "True art is eternal, everlasting, this my simple minded fool, is what fine art really is,"

Deidara replied in an airy tone, as the sun rose ever higher, "As stubborn as ever Danna, you should know that fine art is the beauty of a single fleeting that departs as suddenly as it appeared."

Through ground teeth Sasori said, "You dimwitted fool, you just cannot appreciate real art,"

Before Deidara could make a clever retort, he realized they were at their requested destination; Sasori confused as to why Deidara did not respond turned to look at what Deidara was starring at. A sudden happiness filled his body as he realized that they were at Otogakure, with a chuckle he looked at the village greedily.


	5. Chapter 5

**Akatsuki's Revival**

Sasuke paced impatiently across the morbid floor of his new Akatsuki Room. He cursed the Akatsuki and its members for the severalth time in a row.

Had he not sacrificed enough for this accursed organization? All they had asked of him after he had risked his and his team's multiple times already? To top it all off his eyesight was rapidly deteriorating.

Not only had he and his team missed the invasion, they had not been given a single mission since that failed attempt at capturing the Eight Tailed Jinchuriki.

He looked blurrily at the door, as if expecting the Akatsuki Leader himself to burst inside his room and ask for his forgiveness. _But that's not going to happen anytime soon, _Thought Sasuke bitterly.

Deciding that he had done enough waiting, he pushed open his door and strode off to confront Pain, the leader of the Akatsuki.

***

Sasori studied the agriculture of Otogakure; it had high intimidating walls, decorated with various snake designs.

Inside there were various huts of varying shapes and sizes, in the middle was the most noteworthy thing of all, a large Japanese-styled wall, that had a large open staircase leading deep down under the earth, the walls surrounding the staircase were intimidating to say the least.

The very darkness that led down to the tunnel below seemed more eerie and sinister then normal. It cast an evil aura among the very building. This was obviously Orchimaru's main base of operations.

_And where my ring is, _thought Sasori greedily. He turned to Deidara and signaled him to make his giant clay bird to land nearby the Village Hidden in the Sound. When they landed behind the cover of the trees Deidara turned to Sasori and asked with great interest in his voice, "So what's the plan Danna?"

Sasori looked at Deidara with annoyance and responded in a cool tone, "You will be making a distraction by letting loose your pieces of clay bombs."

Deidara raised his eyebrows, and said, "Don't you mean my art?"

Sasori scoffed and responded in arrogance, "I hardly consider your pieces of clay art, brat."

Deidara sighed as he responded, "Tch, obviously you still don't understand what art truly is, do you Danna, you must know that art is something that is transient and departs quickly, hm."

Sasori snapped back by saying, "Idiot, only you wouldn't know that true art is eternal and ever lasting, unfortunately I do not have the time to explain to you the finer points of art, now how about you do your job." With that Sasori disappeared from the unkempt undergrowth.

"Ah well… I guess I'll just have to show Sasori no Danna the superiority of my art, hm" Deidara said with a grin, as his clay bird rose into the air once more and headed for the village gates. "I think it's time for this village to see some true art, hm." Deidara said as he grabbed and ate a large amount of clay from his bag full of clay.

***

Jugo walked on the outskirts of the Akatsuki base, enjoying the lush forests of Konoha and its peaceful forests; he was so preoccupied in fact, that he did not hear the crack of a twig or see a glint of metal from the corner of his eye.

Suddenly a large three-bladed crimson scythe retracted back and only with a large amount of luck had Jugo partially dodged the otherwise deadly attack, a little trickle of blood dripped from Jugo's cheek, had he not ducked Jugo realized his head would have been rolling across the forest floor.

He glanced up at a grinning silver haired man in his early twenties. Hidan looked at his prey greedily; after all he needed to savor his first kill in months. "Jugo isn't it, well congratulations bastard, you will be my first sacrifice for Jashin-Sama" Hidan said with relish.

Jugo responded calmly, "Why are you doing this, I have no quarrel with you and I am your ally."

Hidan scoffed as he said, "Are you retarded or something?" "I'm doing this because I haven't had a good kill for months plus…" A gruesome smile forming upon his lips as he continued, "I need to prepare myself for when I kill that God damn Nara boy and you are the perfect victim for one of my favorite techniques."

With that he licked the blood off his scythe and he soon his skin turned black and on it, it had various white markings that made him resemble a skeleton. Strangely enough unlike usual there was no Jashin symbol in sight.

Jugo wasted no time to attack; he had heard of his strange voodoo-like abilities and did not want to be one of Hidan's countless victims.

He changed his left arm into a piston-like ram and slammed it towards Hidan. Hidan realized that he was much to fast to fully bloke it and despite himself he grinned.

_Retard… What part of 'immortal' doesn't this fucker get?_ Thought Hidan as he took out one of his retractable pikes.

Hidan quickly retracted it out and ran straight towards Jugo's attack and he took the deadly attack with full force.

Externally there was no visible damage, but Hidan soon coughed up some blood. Hidan grimaced at the pain; the attack had ruptured one of his lungs.

But instead of keeling over or falling back, he took advantage of his close attack range and drove his pike inside Jugo's stomach and unlike Hidan, he was not immortal.

Jugo realizing the danger leapt away to avoid anymore damage, despite himself he let out a groan of pain. Blood dripped profusely from his gaping wound and worsened as Jugo ripped out the pike and snapped it like a twig under his vice like grip.

Jugo realized with despair that he would have to release his Second Curse Seal stage. His entire body soon began to distort and change into Jugo's Second Cursed Seal form.

He then proceeded to transform both arms into deadly looking blades and charged forward. Hidan's eyes widened in shock, not only had he shook off a mortal wound like nothing, his speed had increased tenfold.

Jugo drove both his blade like arms into Hidan's stomach and chest. The corpse then poofed back into a log and Jugo then realized it was a substitution.

Jugo quickly transformed one of his arms into a defensive shield of sorts and not a moment too soon.

Almost immediately after he had formed the shield, Hidan's triple bladed scythe soared towards Jugo and slammed into Jugo's shield and scratched a large cut into the shield and the scythe dug itself within the forest floor.

The rope retracted and sent its owner soaring towards Jugo, with an identical pike in his hand, which glinted evilly in the sunlight.

Jugo reshaped his battered shield arm back into a large blade and kept his other arm in a similar blade like form. He raised his sword like arms in a defensive position, bracing himself for impact.

Hidan tugged his rope upward and the scythe attached to it came free. He threw his pike at Jugo which he blocked expertly.

Hidan smirked, Jugo had fallen right into his trap and with that, Hidan used his remaining momentum to soar into the air and right over Jugo and from behind, Hidan extended his scythe and his weapon dug itself into Jugo's back, he staggered and coughed up blood.

_I am sorry Sasuke, I have failed you…_ thought Jugo as he then collapsed dead without another word.

Hidan felt a surge of power flood into his body and immediately knew that his Curse Technique: Leeching Blood Sacrifice had gone into affect and had been a success.

He now had Jugo's formidable strength and speed. Even though Hidan had to consume an opponent's blood and couldn't use his Voodoo curse was annoying to say the least, as well as the fact that you had a hard time finding a person who could surpass both his speed and strength, it was definitely worth the trouble.

He looked down at the motionless corpse of Jugo one last time, grabbed his scythe, wiped off the small amount of blood on his face, and retrieved and retracted his pike. With a smirk Hidan walked back to the Akatsuki Base and down the winding tunnel, soon… soon Shikamaru Nara will feel the wrath of Jashin-Sama and His loyal follower.

***

Sasori heard the distant sound of explosions as he ran towards the towering walls of Oto.

He saw with satisfaction that not only was the Sound guards distracted by Deidara's clay explosives, there was a smoking pile of rubble where a section of Oto's wall had once stood and he wasted no time to infiltrate Oto via the smoking rubble.

Sasori then ran towards the Orchimaru's main base and soon he came across several Sound ninja. He quickly released one of his remaining Human Puppets, Osumoto.

Osumoto was a male puppet of average size with two large scimitars and a great skill at lightning release.

He then attached various chakra strings to his puppet and controlled it to slam its hands to the earth. Sasori yelled, "_Raiton: Shichū Shibari!"_

Four large pillars rose from the earth and shot various lightning bolts. These bolt of lightning bound the multiple Sound Ninja in place.

"Tch, not even worth killing," muttered Sasori as he canceled his lightning Jutsu and watched momentarily as the pillars cracked and then dissolved all together.

He then passed the paralyzed forms of the Oto ninja, his puppet following close behind.

Soon he reached the Oto castle gateway. Sasori smirked, if he had known that infiltrating this accursed village would be so easy, he would certainly have wreaked his revenge much sooner.

He then proceeded seal his puppet back inside its scroll and walk into the dark abyss that lead down to Orchimaru and his new ring.

***

Sasuke strode through the dismal corridors and hallways of the Akatsuki base. Soon he found himself at a large stone door that he knew was Pain's room. Without even bothering to knock, Sasuke slammed open the door and faced the Akatsuki leader.

Inside the room, there was nothing but the main essentials, surprisingly like Sasuke's own room.

The only difference was the sparser lighting. Only one torch could be seen in the room, on the far side of Pain's throne, where said person was seated. The flickering flame created weird and unnatural shadows.

The sparse lighting combined with Sasuke's deteriorating eyesight made it so only a faint silhouette could be seen, along with Pain's glowing Rinnegan, which was focused on Sasuke.

After a few tense moments Pain finally said in his emotionless voice, "To what do I owe the unexpected visit, Sasuke-Kun?"

Annoyance flashed through Sasuke's eyes as Sasuke replied, "You know full well why I came here, Pain."

Sasuke could faintly see Pain raise an eyebrow and a moment later he said, "I'm afraid I don't know what you are talking about, now if you don't mind, return to your post and I will call upon up when I see fi-"

Sasuke slammed his fist at the opposing wall, which cracked on impact. Sasuke interrupted furiously, "That's not good enough!" "Hasn't my team and I sacrificed enough for your damn organization!"

Pain immediately stood up and glared at Sasuke as he said in a menacing whisper, "I will not be spoken to like that by a spoiled little child, now go before another Uchiha is gone from this world."

Even in his furious state, Sasuke knew that he was no match against someone like Pain, and with a sneer strode off and slammed the door behind him.

He furiously stomped to the tunnel that led to the surface and blow off some of his steam in the peaceful and familiar forests of Konoha.

Along his way he passed Hidan, but took no heed to a lesser being such as him.

When he finally left the tunnel and into the world above. He walked off a ways and suddenly he stumbled across something.

He looked down and what he saw made his eyes widen and say in disbelief, "What is this?!"

***

Deidara laughed insanely as he dropped more of his C1 type bombs in various forms. Mostly clay spiders and birds.

It felt great doing his art once more, seeing Sasori down below heading towards the wall, he controlled one of his small clay birds to plunge down to a small section of the wall that was in the general direction of where Sasori was headed.

When the bird was close enough Deidara screamed, "Katsu!" The clay bird immediately exploded and the nearby wall was turned to smoldering rubble.

Deidara grinned as he saw various Sound Ninja fire multiple projectiles at him, which Deidara easily avoided with some of his expert aerodynamic maneuvers on his giant clay falcon.

Deidara realized he had run out of clay sculptures, so he controlled his clay falcon to take cover over a cloud so he wouldn't be bothered by any attacks.

Deidara grabbed more clay out of his bag with both hands and his months on his hands began greedily chewing the clay and infusing it with his chakra.

Soon the mouths each spat out a decent amount of chakra mixed clay. He then proceeded to grip the clay and mold the clay into the shapes of many multiple small birds and a few spiders.

He controlled his clay falcon to dive down towards the village below.

He dropped his various C1 Clay creations and then broke the dive and remained at the same altitude. He looked at the falling clay pieces with pride as he said; "Now these Sound Shinobi will see true art, hm!"

The various clay creations enlarged in a poof of smoke and the birds dive bombed the multiple huts and shacks within the walls of Oto and the spiders fell on the various Oto Ninja.

With a smile Deidara said, "Art is… a BLAST!" With that his art exploded all across Oto, which was in total chaos from the explosions and the fires it had caused.

Deidara watched Sasori's descent into the underground Orchimaru's base. With his partner out of harms way a marvelous idea crept into Deidara's head.

A mischievous grin formed on Deidara's face as he took out a large human-like sculpture made out of clay from his bag and said, "It's a shame Sasori no Danna won't be able to see one of my best pieces of art, I guess I'll have to watch this dump of a village be blown sky high by myself, hm." With that he released his C3 clay master piece, which grew to enormous proportions and watched as it fell down to the village below…

***

Sasori walked down the seemingly endless flight of stairs. Torches lined each wall every couple of meters or so.

When Sasori's feet finally met solid ground he let out a sigh of relief, he had been getting extremely impatient.

He looked ahead searching for a flicker of movement, but as far as the eye could see the corridor stretched for miles on end, torches lined up on either wall.

With a grunt of frustration he walked onward. As he continued through the dismal hallway, he suddenly felt the floor beneath him give way, realizing the danger; he created several chakra strings on his fingers and attached them up on the stone ceiling above.

Not a moment too soon, he saw that at the bottom of the booby trap were multiple jagged spikes that had numerous skeletons scattered across the horrible trap.

Still, Sasori was somewhat disappointed at Orchimaru, this was cliché as well as easy for someone such as him to avoid.

Shaking his head as he swung back and forth, detached the chakra strings, and then used the momentum to cross to the other side.

As Sasori walked onward and a few minutes later he suddenly felt the stone he had stepped on shift downwards. Upon closer inspection, he saw that each wall, the ceiling, and floor had multiple holes across it.

Sasori cursed as row upon row of kunai sprang from the holes, coming from every direction. A moment later, Sasori's immobile form was covered in countless kunai.

The motionless silhouette of Sasori fell down to the cold cement and then poofed into Osumoto, the Human Puppet.

Suddenly the puppet cracked open from the inside out, upon the splintered remains was Sasori of the Red Sands, safe and sound.

Sasori looked at the remains of his beloved master piece regretfully, but carried on towards his destination.

He entered a large corridor, which upon his arrival, both the exit and entrance doors sealed shut with a loud clang.

Sasori was annoyed to say the least, although to make the situation even more bothersome, the chamber began filling itself with water.

Sasori was unimpressed, he calmly summoned another Human puppet, which was male, enormous in size, and had wicked looking claws.

Even as he had done this, the rapidly raising water had already risen up to Sasori's waist. He attached chakra strings to his puppet, but even as he did this the chamber was filled completely of water but this did not concern Sasori in the slightest.

Being a Human Puppet himself, Sasori was unaffected by this usually deadly booby trap and controlled the puppet to break the stone door from where he had came with its claws.

Even with the water slowing down and weakening the clawed punch, it was still enough to break the door in a couple of hits.

Gallon upon gallon gushed through the gaping hole in the door and soon the chamber was only knee high.

More impatient then ever, the then controlled his puppet to destroy the door on the other side, and then stepping through to the other side, his puppet in close behind.

Soon he saw a thin silhouette of a door at the end of the hallway, which then broke left and right. He quickened his pace, excitement coursing through his body, as he realized he would soon have his new Akatsuki ring and maybe, just maybe, his revenge as well.

He finally reached the door and without any hesitation what-so-ever he opened the door. Inside the room was dark and eerie, only a small candle that was laid on a table provided any light. The light caused various jars, which were laid on several shelves lining both walls to come into view.

Even the ones that were not illuminated by the candle seemed to cast a sinister glow. Sasori saw that on the far right corner sat a jar that contained the disembodied hand that held Orchimaru's old Akatsuki ring.

He could barely see the small Japanese wording on the center of the light blue coloring of the ring, which meant Void in Japanese.

As he moved towards it he saw a flicker of movement and then out of the darkness Sasori saw the snake-like eyes of Orchimaru appear and he heard the same hissing voice of his former partner, who he hadn't met in years, "I've been expecting you, Sasori-San" Orchimaru said as he stepped out of the shadows, a mocking smile on his snake-like face and his famed Kusanagi Long Sword glinting malevolently in the candle light.

***

Sasuke looked down at the bloody corpse of his loyal teammate Jugo, his eyes widened in shock. He looked fiercely for the culprit, but if who ever it was, they were nowhere to be seen.

Solemnly Sasuke closed Jugo's eyes, and he saw a tiny flash on his battered and bloodied Akatsuki cloak. He saw with rage that a long silvery hair that was spattered in blood, he knew only one person who had that color of hair, Hidan of Akatsuki.

Rage filled every pore of Sasuke's body, not only had the Akatsuki neglected his Team after one failed mission, they had now killed one of their own…

Sasuke ran into the dismal entrance to Akatsuki's base, soon entering the main chamber. He did not stop until he slammed open Pain's door. Sasuke glared at the formidable Akatsuki leader who returned the glare full-heartedly and said in an angered tone, "I thought I told you to return to your quarters, insect."

Sasuke roared, "Your God damn Akatsuki member, Hidan, killed my subordinate in cold blood!"

Pain's eyes flashed dangerously as he said, "Do you have any proof for this ludicrous accusation?"

Sasuke pulled out the bloodied hair of Hidan's and give it to Pain and snarled, "Is this enough proof for you?"

Pain examined the hair with disdain, and replied, "You expect me to believe your wild accusations all because of a piece of oddly colored hair?"

Sasuke was at a loss for words, the realization that Hidan would get away with this was enough to make his blood boil. Pain took advantage of this moment of silence and said coldly, "I think you and your remaining team's services will no longer be necessary."

Cold hard fury dominated every pore of his body and the remainder of Sasuke's self-control broke, Sasuke activated his Mangkyou Sharingan eyes and yelled, "Amaterasu!" A scorching pitch black fire erupted from the left eye of Sasuke Uchiha, heading straight for the surprised Akatsuki Leader.

***

Sasori stared at the smiling Orchimaru intently; it looked for the most part like Orchimaru, but…

Something was off, maybe it was the faint traces of white hair that still remained of the now long black hair, or maybe the features of Orchimaru's face still had some small characteristics of Kabuto left, but for the most part, it was Orchimaru. The same arrogant and belittling smirk could be seen on Orchimaru's pale face.

"I've been waiting a long time for this Orchimaru…" Sasori said, not taking his eyes off the Snake Sannin for a second.

Orchimaru tilted his head inquiringly, "I'm amazed Sasori-San, that you waited all these years, I had known you long enough to know how impatient you are," Orchimaru replied in a patronizing voice.

"Well, the wait's over, now… Die!" Sasori took a scroll from his baggy Akatsuki cloak and released the last of his Human Puppets.

Although all of the puppets were battle scarred, from their previous fight with Sakura and Chiyo, they were at full fighting capacity.

Moving even faster, Orchimaru rose both arms and said,"_Sen'eijashu,_" multiple snakes raced out of Orchimaru's sleeves and captured two of the ten. The other Human Puppets, including Sasori, dodged the attack.

Glaring at his opponent, Sasori manipulated his remaining puppets to attack his former Akatsuki partner with a barrage of Senbon needles.

Still smiling Orchimaru said, "_Fūton: Daitoppa,_" a large explosion of wind knocked the deadly needles off course, and hit Sasori dead on. Said person crashed into the wall immediately.

Taking advantage of the sudden opening Orchimaru appeared in front of Sasori and he said with a chuckle, "I don't know how you miraculously came back to life or why you fool hardly infiltrated my village and then my base but it ends now, good bye Sasori-San."

With that, Orchimaru thrust his Kusanagi sword right through Sasori's heart and turned to walk away.

Just when Orchimaru's back was turned, Sasori's uncomprehending eyes regained their light and focus. Sasori silently withdrew a katana from beneath his cloak and swiftly attacked the unsuspecting Snake Sannin.

Sasori made his move and Orchimaru's eyes widened in surprise as he was cut in two by the sneak attack.

Sasori looked at the corpse of his former Akatsuki partner and said with satisfaction, "You've disappointed me Orchimaru, I thought you of all people would not be as foolish as too underestimate me." The battle was over, Sasori had won… Or so he thought.

Using his Oral Rebirth Jutsu, Orchimaru slowly rose, looking incredulously and replied, "And you should have known as well, that it's never that easy."

Saying nothing he controlled one of his nearby Human Puppets to use one of its Fire Release Jutsu's, a large fire ball soared straight at Orchimaru, who easily dodged.

Sasori continued by controlling one puppet to attack with its long sword, Orchimaru blocked it with his own sword and immobilized the puppet with an Earth Release Jutsu that turned the ground beneath the Puppets feet into instant mud, which then hardened again when only the puppet's shoulders, neck, and head remained.

Another Human Puppet who was gigantic in size, attacked with its claws, which took Orchimaru took by surprise and beheaded him, but used his Oral Rebirth Jutsu again and said, "_Jagei Jubak," _An enormous snake crawled out of his sleeve and headed for Sasori.

He controlled the giant puppet with the claws to take the hit. The snake slammed into the human puppet and wrapped around the wooden body of the Human Puppet and sank its fangs into the head of the prone figure.

Smirking at the snake's stupidity, he controlled four other human puppets to shoot Senbon Needles at the gargantuan snake.

When the attack was complete the snake was covered in countless needles and dropped down to the floor dead.

Then a pair of puppets created a Wind and Fire Release Combination Jutsu, which headed straight for the Snake Sannin.

He spat out a large amount of mud and said, "_Doton: Doryūheki,"_ The mud solidified and a large mud wall rose up and hit the ceiling.

The blazing inferno hit the wall dead on and then disintegrated most of it before going out in a large puff of smoke.

When the smoke cleared Orchimaru was no where to be seen.

Sasori looked desperately for his prey but then he heard a swishing sound from behind. Sasori whipped his head back and could see the smirking figure of Orchimaru slashing his sword at him.

Surprise could be seen on Sasori's face as the sword cut off his left arm, losing control of two more of his puppets.

Orchimaru slammed Sasori to the floor and stomped on his chest, an obvious crack could be heard.

Orchimaru chuckled and whispered, "Did you really think you had a chance at defeating me?"

Orchimaru looked at his former Akatsuki member belittlingly. "I suppose I should wrap this up, this time I'll make sure you're dead,"

With that he raised his sword and swung the deadly blade. But just before he could behead the Puppet Master, the entire room suddenly shook, an enormous boom could be heard and if Sasori had had any ear drums, he would have been sure they would have been busted.

Large chunks fell from the ceiling and Orchimaru had to jump back to avoid being crush.

Seeing this great opportunity, Sasori sealed his puppets, trapped or otherwise, back into a scroll and jumped away just as a large chunk of ceiling fell down where he had been laying a moment before.

Sunlight began to stream in; he saw that the shelf containing his prize still stood.

So Sasori grabbed the jar containing the disembodied hand that wore his new ring on the pinky of the wrinkled finger, with his remaining arm.

He proceeded to jump upon the falling rubble and turned as he reached the top.

He saw the angry form of Orchimaru, and Sasori said, "Goodbye Orchimaru, I got my prize, but rest assured, one day very soon, I will return for my revenge."

With that, Sasori looked up to see Deidara's giant clay falcon and jumped onto it.

He realized Deidara must of used one of his C3 clay bombs, from the air the damage looked even worse.

At least a forth of the village had turned into a desolate wasteland, all the landscape had turned into nothing but ash and an enormous crater had been created, which had made the hole in which he could escape.

Deidara controlled his bird to head back to the Akatsuki base.

Sasori hated to admit it but he realized that if it hadn't been for the timely arrival of his C3 bomb, his head would surely had been rolling around Orchimaru's stone floor.

Deidara knew this and said, "Well…"

Sasori snapped, "Well what?"

Deidara smiled and replied, "I think a thank you is in order,"

Sasori glared at his Akatsuki partner and responded tersely, "For what I might wonder?"

Knowing Sasori would rather swallow one of his clay bombs then admit he was wrong and give thanks Deidara continued, "Well for saving you of course, hm."

"Did I ask you to save me, brat?" Sasori answered coldly.

"Well you certainly look like it…" Deidara replied, looking at the stump where Sasori's arm once was.

"Okay, okay, maybe your art isn't so useless after all…" Sasori muttered, looking at Deidara with defiance.

Knowing that this was as good as it was going to get, he remained silent and watched the Hidden Village of Sound, or what was left of it, vanish from view…

***

Pain quickly regained his composure and said, "_Shinra Tensei,_" the Amaterasu flames were diverted and it hit the opposing wall, which disintegrated immediately after contact. Sasuke took advantage of the distraction and attacked with his unsheathed sword.

Pain tracked his movements and lazily blocked his attack with his newly made Chakra Disruption Blade. Sparks flew as the blades connected; Deva Path wore his usual bored, calm expression.

Pain heard a large chirping sound from behind and Sasuke Uchiha's Shadow Clone yelled, "_Chidori_!"

Pain grabbed the clone's arm before the Chidori could hit him and said, "_Raiton: Jibashi," _a surge of electricity dispelled the clone.

Sasuke jumped back and shouted, "_Katon: Gōryūka no Jutsu_," several large dragon-shaped fireballs headed straight for Pain.

However, instead of dodging Deva Path did the necessary hand seals and said, "_Suiton: Mizurappa,_" gallon upon gallon of water rushed through Pain's mouth. He controlled the powerful torrent of water to collide against the inferno, just as they were about to meet a small amount of the water squirted on Deva Path's right sleeve.

A large burst of steam appeared as the two powerful forces of nature clashed into each other. Taking advantage of the momentary cover, Nagato sent out his Preta Path from a concealed room containing the remaining Six Paths of Pain.

Preta Path was a short, fat, and blocky individual that had bright orange hair that was tied in a ponytail and had the Rinnegan eyes. To top it off, there were a multitude of pierces on his face and shoulders.

Once it exited from the foreboding room, the Preta Path headed towards the oncoming battle between the Akatsuki leader and the 'Last Uchiha.' When it arrived at the remains of Pain's room the remaining steam had cleared.

Undeterred by the new arrival, Sasuke took advantage of Deva Path's wet sleeve and plunged his sword into the ground and powerful lightning bolts erupted from the ground hitting both his opponents.

The Preta Path merely absorbed the powerful attack with is specialized absorption Jutsu. The Deva Path however, was not as lucky.

Although he had jumped up from the ground moments before the lightning hit, his moistened sleeve had varied as a conductor to electrocute him.

The Deva Path grimaced as he hit the opposing wall, but held his composure as he saw Sasuke deactivate his Mangkyou Sharingan. He fell to the ground, sliding against the wall behind him, his now limp arm dropping his Chakra Disruption Blade which fell to the ground with a dull thud.

Sasuke smirked arrogantly and said, "How do you like my _Chidori Nagashi_," Deva Path glared at the insolent Uchiha boy as he continued, "I think it's a pretty useful Jutsu if I do say so myself, it paralyzes the nerves with Electrical Chakra, but I think you already realize that, don't you?"

Before Sasuke could continue gloating he saw from the corner of his eye Preta Path head straight for him.

Scoffing at the new arrival's arrogance he did the necessary hand seals and said, "_Chidori Senbon,_" countless Senbon made up from his Chidori shot out from Sasuke's hand and headed straight for the Preta Path.

Surprisingly the Preta Path absorbed the oncoming blast and took out an identical blade that the Deva Path had. Although surprised to say the least, Sasuke didn't let his enemy see it.

He begrudgingly activated his _Chidori Nagashi _around his entire body and blocked the incoming strike with his own sword, but unexpectedly the Preta Path grabbed a hold of Sasuke anyways.

Sasuke panicked as he saw his _Chidori Nagashi _vanish and felt his very Chakra vanishing.

Thinking fast, Sasuke activated his Mangkyou Sharingan once again and yelled, "Amaterasu," an enormous black inferno erupted from Sasuke's left eye and hit the Preta Path at point blank range.

Unlike before, the Preta Path could not absorb an attack quite like this. Against popular belief, Preta Path's Absorption Jutsu couldn't absorb everything. The only thing it could not absorb was Bloodline Limit Jutsu's. So when the jet-black flames hit the Preta Path he was immediately incinerated.

With his only means of help now a smoldering pile of ash, Sasuke lazily walked to the now paralyzed Deva Path his smirk widening to a grin, ready to finish off his downed opponent.

"Pathetic, a weakling like you the leader of Akatsuki?" Sasuke raised an eyebrow and continued, "I deserve retribution that you wouldn't give and once I'm finished with you, I'll become the new Akatsuki leader and condemn that no good bastard to death." Sasuke stated arrogantly raising his sword high above his head, "But I'll need a new ring… I think I'll take yours as a trophy." Sasuke finished, slashing down his sword for the finishing blow…

But that blow never came; moments before Sasuke could give the deadly blow, Deva Path withdrew a Chakra Disruption Blade from his left sleeve and plunged the sword into Sasuke's chest with his opposing arm.

Sasuke stumbled backwards, eyes widening in disbelief. Blood dribbled from the Uchiha's mouth as he desperately tried to stay conscious; he dug his sword into the ground and clung on it to stay standing.

Pain stood up, glaring at his former subordinate, his right arm limp and useless. Deva Path said with a large amount of contempt, "Such arrogance, you the leader of Akatsuki?" Pain scoffed, "You are nothing more then a spoiled little child in my eyes, you are not even worth killing, insect."

Upon hearing this, a new determination was born; he starred at Pain with his Mangkyou Sharingan eyes appearing yet again, taking Pain by surprise, as he said, "_Tsukuyomi_," eye contact had been made, making the attack unavoidable…

But something was wrong, he was not in the red and black world of_ Tsukuyomi_ like when he used it on the 8-tailed Jinchuriki, Kirābī. For some reason he was still in the dismal room of Pain's.

An intense hatred could be seen in his swirling Rinnegan eyes as Sasuke stared at Pain, dumbfounded. Deva Path said in his usual monotone, "Fool, my Rinnegan eyes far surpasses your Sharingan eyes…"

Hopelessness threatened to overwhelm him as he realized his _Tsukuyomi _failed, but kept his composure, he would not give Pain the satisfaction of seeing him fall into despair.

In desperation, Sasuke released his sword from the ground and charged for Pain, ignoring the piercing pain in his stomach.

Before Sasuke could even get close enough to hit the Akatsuki Leader he heard Deva Path say, "_Banshō Ten'in,_" Sasuke flew towards Pain, who held out his left arm and grabbed his neck when he was in his grasp.

Sasuke coughed and desperately struggled to get free, but to no avail. Then Sasuke drifted into unconsciousness and then Pain threw his unmoving form onto the ground.

Before the Uchiha could hit the cold hard floor the remaining members of Team Hawk caught him.

Pain stared at the new arrivals, who stared right back, then Pain turned away and said coldly, "Take that piece of trash from my sight, Team Hawk is no longer welcome as an Akatsuki ally."

Knowing it was useless to protest the remaining members of Team Hawk disappeared in a poof of smoke.


	6. Chapter 6

Akatsuki's Revival

The 5 man ANBU Team jumped across the leafed branches of the towering trees in the Land of Fire. Each ANBU Member wore the standard ANBU uniform consisting of black and gray armor and arm guards.

The ANBU signature spiral tattoo on each of the members left shoulders, signifying their male gender and their loyalty to Konoha's ANBU Organization. On their backs they wore the usual Ninjato, securely strapped on their backs.

In fact the only real distinguishing trait was the different porcelain animal masks on each men's face. Each ANBU had animal shaped masks, which were in the shape of an eagle, monkey, tiger, bear, and the leader of the group had a weasel-shaped mask.

They had been dispatched by the Hokage with the job of locating Kakashi Hatake, who had mysteriously failed to report to Konoha after several days. This was very unusual for any ninja too not report in several days, there were only two explanations for this oddity and both were unthinkable.

One explanation was that Kakashi is being held prisoner by the Akatsuki, who would undoubtedly try to get information on Konoha and most importantly, Naruto. The second explanation was that the Akatsuki had caught on to his pursuit and had decided to kill the Leaf Shinobi…

As they continuously jumped from branch to branch they came across a clearing, with signs of a ferocious battle that must have only been a few days old. The obvious signs of this were the various ninja weapons strewn across the battlefield, the scorch marks indicating Fire Release Jutsu, and dried blood that covered various parts of the clearing.

The group gasped in horror and surprise as they gazed at the center of the horrendous battleground where the decaying and bloody body of Kakashi Hatake lay.

Upon closer examination they could see that the famed Sharingan eye was gone, ripped out of the Copy Ninja's eye socket. Various gashes could be seen in multiple places across the decomposing corpse of the fallen ninja. The remaining eye could be seen, looking unknowingly into space, fingers numb with the shock of seeing one of Konoha's best Ninja dead, the ANBU Group Leader respectively closed the remaining eye of Kakashi's.

The group looked at each other, how could they tell the Hidden Leaf Village this horrible tragedy? How could they bring the dead body of one of the most respected Shinobi of the entire Shinobi World to Konoha dead and unmoving?

They knew that they couldn't just leave him here, as hard as it might be; they had to bring their beloved hero back to Konoha to give him the proper burial that he deserved. So, the multiple ANBU Members solemnly grabbed the body of Kakashi Hatake and lifted him up on each of the men's shoulders and then the unit sped off, back to the Village Hidden in the Leaves…

***

Suigetsu ran through an empty corridor, looking desperately for the infamous 'Monster of the Hidden Mist's' room. He knew he only had a small amount of time before the Akatsuki will discover his idiotic leader's pathetic attempt at trying to kill their leader and would know that Team Hawk was no longer welcome in their new base of operations.

He knew he should have been with the remaining Team Hawk, but the only reason he even joined Taka was because of the chance of gaining Samehada…

Suigetsu recalled how distraught Karin was when he had said he would go and try and get Kisame Hoshigaki's Sword and had kept saying it was his responsibility to take care of that arrogant little bastard, _but who really cares about what that stupid bitch thinks anyways? _Thought Suigetsu with a smirk.

Suigetsu grew increasingly frustrated as he ran through each dismal hallways and corridors of the Akatsuki Base until finally he saw the door he had been looking for, the door to the Akatsuki Infirmary. He stealthily crept down the dark hallway to the partially open stone door, where a small stream of candlelight came out from the small opening.

_Kirigakure no Jutsu_ Suigetsu whispered. Soon afterwards a thick mist began to form and quickly enveloped the infirmary room with a thick mist. The Team Hawk member quickly took out a scroll, unrolled it in midair and released his newly retrieved Guillotine Sword, which he proceeded to grip it firmly in his right hand with his now muscular arm, courtesy of his _Suiton: Gōsuiwan no Jutsu_. Suigetsu slammed open the door and the battle between the two missing Kirigakure ninjas was about to begin…

***

Deidara looked down at the increasingly changing scenery with a bored expression. There was a mutual understanding that his senior, Sasori, did not wish to talk about his experience in Oto…

And by the murderous glint in his eye when he started to describe, in explicit detail, the wondrous pieces of art he had given the honored Village of Oto, Deidara took the hint that he wasn't in the mood for any talk what-so-ever.

The passionate arsonist longed to blow anything up, if only to get rid of his growing boredom. Unfortunately, he had used all of his exploding clay in making that pathetic excuse of a village more… artistic. Deidara sighed; he didn't even have enough clay for one of his beautiful C1 Clay Explosions.

As the dangerous duo flew ever closer to he hidden Akatsuki Base, Deidara made to remove his scope as to locate the Gen-Jutsu concealed base without any difficulty. As he did just that, he saw with relief the familiar foreboding hill down below.

The clay falcon flew into increasingly smaller circles until it finally landed down by the base. The jar containing the disembodied hand of Orchimaru's held firmly in hand, Sasori disappeared into the dark tunnel without another backward glance or word, wanting to replace his nonexistent arm as quickly as possible.

Deidara was close behind, pausing only to shrink his clay creation to a more manageable size and pocketed it in his now empty clay bag and put his scope back on. The Missing Iwa Ninja walked into the passageway, eager to get some well deserved sleep.

***

Pain growled in fury as he looked at the pile of ash that had once been his Preta Path… His room could be easily repaired, but a new body worthy for a God such as himself was a much harder fix…

As Pain used his Earth Jutsu to restore his room to its former state an idea started to form inside Nagato's head; as he watched with an uninterested expression as stone started to rise among the shattered remains of a wall, soon becoming a wall itself.

The room was soon restored to its original state, the shattered stone; one of the only pieces of evidence of the tremendous fight began to sink into the ground, soon the only thing that was showed any signs of the battle were the remains of the Preta Path.

The more Nagato thought about his idea the more appealing it became, after all, he needed a new Path of Pain and what better body then one of the most powerful ninja in the entire world? And he was located in his own village of Amegakure no less…

Spurred by the thought, he went at a brisk walk to Madara's room. He hated asking that arrogant Uchiha a favor, but he knew he had to swallow his pride this time. He opened Madara's door, to reveal a masked man sitting on his bed. Madara asked with a sigh, "What is it now Nagato?"

Annoyed to say the least, he asked in a stiff tone, "Madara, I need to ask you for a favor…"

'Tobi' tilted his head and answered with a smirk, "And what can I do for you Nagato that a 'God' such as yourself can't do himself?"

Wanting nothing more then to snap his arrogant neck in half for his insolence he replied with a glare, "I need you to teleport me to my home Village of Amegakure and I need you to find and capture Naruto the Nine-Tailed Jinchuriki."

With that he took the papers he had retrieved in Konoha from an obscure pocket in the interior of his Akatsuki cloak and handed it to the ancient Uchiha, which pocketed inside his own cloak. Then with that, Pain felt a rushing sensation and then a wave of blackness and when it was done, he was in his own industrialized village's soaked town square.

Deva Path walked down the raining street of his own city of Amegakure. He had asked Madara to teleport him here, only moments before. He would have to show that Uchiha his place sooner then later… but he pushed that thought out of his mind as he arrived at his desired destination.

He stared at a deep and overflowing pool of water through the dismal drizzle with his Rinnegan eyes. After several moments in the rain, the Path of Pain appeared to be satisfied walked on the surface of the pool and said in an emotionless voice, "_Banshō Ten'in."_

A surprisingly well-preserved corpse soon floated on the water's surface, with that, Pain nonchalantly walked up to the corpse of Jiraiya the Toad Sage and picked up and placed the dead body upon the Path of Pain's back and then disappeared in a puff of smoke, back to the Akatsuki Base to become the new Preta Path…

***

Kakuzu watched his prey greedily from the cover of the trees. He had been watching a group of 5 ANBU Members for days now, waiting for the perfect chance to strike. And now, after he had seen them lift a corpse from a clearing and speed off to Konoha, the group now literally had dead weight, he knew then and there that it was the perfect time to restock…

Wasting no time, he extended both of his hands to grab an ANBU Member. The ANBU screamed in horror as the arms retracted and pulled him to its evil owner. Before he could even unsheathe his Ninjato, multiple black threads firmly attached to the startled ANBU, who gave one final scream of agony and terror before he collapsed dead.

Kakuzu smiled from beneath his mask, it could be seen that the remainder of the squadron had froze in shock at having heard one of their comrades' die in such a horrific manner. Kakuzu ran towards the stunned group, his Akatsuki cloak taken off and blown away from the gust of wind created by his inhuman speed.

Kakuzu whispered, "_Doton: Domo no Jutsu,"_ as he said that, his skin turned into a blackish coloring and his skin now had a steel-like strength, that he used to punch another ANBU in his stomach, said person coughed up bits of blood.

_Not that I care_, Thought Kakuzu sadistically, _I just need his heart to be intact_, the remaining ANBU tried desperately to save their friend but to no avail.

All their Ninjato just bounced off the Kakuzu's body, the former Takigakure Ninja looked at the group with annoyance and growled, "Insects, your attacks are useless, I will deal with you next, but first…" Kakuzu proceeded to release his thread-based monstrosities from his back and finished, "Why don't you play with my pets!"

The Unit of ANBU had never seen anything that repulsing, not knowing what these masked monstrosities were, they retreated slightly. "_Katon: Zukokku_!" Kakuzu yelled as he started to stitch his back, back together. He controlled his newly created tiger-creature with a mask with various red markings and was in the shape of a tiger; to open its mouth and spit out a small fire ball that, which it did accordingly, and once it hit the ground, erupted into an enormous firestorm, the ANBU realized this was no longer a fight to win, it was a fight for survival…

***

Zetsu rose slowly above a seemingly ever-going expanse of sea and sand. The multi-personality cannibal looked at the slow cycle of the advancing and receding sea, for sea it was. The body of water stretched as far as the eye could see.

He saw that it had a tropical feel to it, with the high humidity even though it was still dawn. In fact bits of morning mist drifted by his feet as he walked down the beautiful coast. He had heard various rumors that the Eight-tailed Jinchuriki was here…

Zetsu walked on though the brief fog, looking for the 8-tailed Jinchuriki that was rumored to be here. The plant man sighed, Pain had assigned him this mission the moment Itachi was revived and all he saw from his various recon missions were rock, trees, or water, no sign of a Jinchuriki.

"**It seemed as through we had been looking through the various coastlines for centuries now…**" stated the black side of Zetsu with a sigh, as the cannibal continued to walk on the sandy path.

The white side replied,"Patience, we will find him soon enough,"

The darker personality snapped back, "**I was only saying, after 5 days of searching day and night you would think we would find **_**something,**_**"** he heard the squawk of a bird and looked up to see a multi-colored parrot fly above his head and landed on a palm tree a decent distance away.

The white side replied with a note of finality, "The Jinchuriki can't run forever, eventually we will find him," as if to prove his point he saw a figure resting on the same palm tree as the parrot through the morning mist. Not wanting to blow his cover, the plant-man slowly disappeared into the sand.

The black and white head of Zetsu slowly appeared high above the opposing figure on the palm tree that the figure was resting on down below. He peered down at the individual to get a better look at the being. He saw that his head was sagging and deep rumbling snores signified he was asleep.

He took a look at the individual, he saw that he was a young, black –skinned man wearing sunglasses and a Hidden Cloud Head band gripped loosely in his dark hand. In fact the only real note of interest was the several swords that were scattered by him.

Zetsu's eyes widened as he realized who this stranger, Kirābī the Eight-Tailed Jinchuriki. He saw in the distance a crude wooden shack, the Jinchuriki's home. The cannibalistic Akatsuki member gave a horrendous smile as he slowly disappeared in the wooden bark of the palm tree; back to the Akatsuki base, where the plant-man will give his report…

The waves crashed on, the parrot squawked, and a gentle wind whooshed by as the unsuspecting Jinchuriki, who continued to snore peacefully. The Eight-tailed Jinchuriki as ignorant as ever of the events that would soon unfold…

***

The Ninja with the Eagle-like mask quickly did a few hand seals and said_, "Suiton: Suijinheki,"_ an enormous water wall erupted from the ground and the two forces of nature clashed, creating a large amount of steam, that spread through the entire battlefield. Knowing the danger of the perpetual blindness that the searing steam created, the remaining Shinobi decided to fallback.

Taking advantage of the distraction, Kakuzu proceeded to transfer the screaming Ninja's heart into his own body. Another mask started to form on his back, Kakuzu realized with happiness, that this mask had a Lightning Affinity. Kakuzu sighed, the one with the Eagle-like mask was now disposable, he had hoped since his mask represented a bird, he would have the rare Wind Affinity, he now realized that was not the case.

With no reason to hold back, Kakuzu ran towards the unsuspecting ANBU through the cover from the steam, which was already dissipating. Before the ANBU could even realize what had happened, he was ensnarled in Kakuzu's many threads.

The ANBU realized he couldn't move a muscle; he was dragged within the steam, where Kakuzu plunged one of the deceased ANBU's Ninjato through the struggling Shinobi's heart. It proceeded to poof into a log, Kakuzu kept his composure and with his stolen sword; he blocked a surprise attack from the side from the Eagle-shaped masked ANBU.

Wanting this to be a one on one battle, he controlled his two Elemental Thread Monsters to attack the 2 remaining ANBU. "I have to say, you really are quite talented at the Replacement Jutsu," Stated Kakuzu, watching his quarry with cold, cruel eyes.

The ANBU glared at the monster through his mask and inquired, "From your cloak, I would say you are from Akatsuki, correct?"

Kakuzu answered with a chuckle, "Yes I am, but where are my manners?" The last of the steam started to dissipate, taking advantage of the last of the obscurity; he detached his newly stolen Lightning Heart, and implanted it into the ground. From behind his mask, he grinned evilly, he finished by saying, "My name is Kakuzu, member of the Akatsuki, the banker of the organization, and your soon to be killer."

The ANBU replied with contempt, "As a Member of the ANBU, it is my duty to kill monsters like you, and I will do just that." So busy glaring at his opponent he did not notice various cracks form from beneath his feet, "Be proud monster, for you will die by the hand of Masoto Kudoku."

Kakuzu chuckled, he watched as the arrogant Masoto Kudoku screamed in surprise as his independent Lightning Affinity Heart wrapped its tentacle-like threads around the panicking ANBU. He cast a wicked smile in amusement from the screams of agony as the black threads electrocuted the Ninja to death from its _Raiton; __Kaminari__ Nagashi_, which sent a focused stream of lightning that radiated through the entire body, killing him within seconds.

Kakuzu looked at the fried corpse with a pitiless stare, he said to the corpse of the fallen ninja, "You never had a chance ANBU," he was about to jump back into the fray when a stray Kunai that cut deep into Kakuzu's shoulder, cursing loudly; he quickly sewed the wound back up with his threads and reattached the thumping thread-covered heart back into his ragdoll-like body.

He jumped into the fray of the on going battle, the ANBU Captain turned just as Kakuzu said, "_Raiton; Jibashi,_" a large surge of lightning blasted straight towards the Konoha ninja.

The Shinobi quickly did the necessary hand seals and said, "_Fūton: Kazekiri no Jutsu," _a large slicing wind cut straight through the lightning and straight at the surprised Akatsuki Member. Kakuzu tried to dodge, only for him to realize that such a feat would be impossible even for him. With that, the deadly wind hit him spot on...

***

Kisame was… bored. True, he should be thankful for being alive; still, all he did was recover in an infirmary bed. He cursed Might Guy a thousand times over for landing him into this situation.

He was lucky he supposed; he had an uncanny healing power, although even with this, it would take at least a month of rest to even be in good enough shape to get back into the game. The problem was that he had to snap each bone back into place for the injuries to heal properly. The pain was brief but excruciating to say the least.

The only visitor he had had was Itachi, who had said in his usual monotone that he was a bit too reckless for his own good, and had said as an after thought to get well soon. _Itachi… he had always been a tough nut to crack,_ Thought Kisame with a smirk.

Kisame was interrupted from his musings by a creeping mist that was coming into the infirmary. He grabbed Samehada, which had been leaning on the nearby wall, and went into a defensive position, ignoring the pain caused by his broken bones.

The mist soon covered the entire room but not before Kisame made the various stone furniture sink back into the ground. He heard the door slam open and said with a chuckle as he waited for the eventual attack, "Kirigakure no Jutsu… I know it well, Zabuza was quite proficient at it, and so were you… Suigetsu."

The former Swordsmen of the Hidden Mist trainee let out a laugh and his voice echoed through the room, "You were always the observant one, fish face," Kisame let out his signature toothy grin as Suigetsu continued, "What gave it away?"

Kisame replied, "Well, your obsession for getting my sword was a bit of a give-away, plus in my time in the Hidden Mist, I've known that you were the type of slime to kick a dog when he's down…" Kisame peered through the mist, looking for his assailant in vain.

With that, Suigetsu slashed his mighty sword down at Kisame, who blocked it with his own sword, which proceeded to shred its white bandages to reveal its sharp and wicked scales. Kisame said with a grin, "Not that I'm complaining, I needed a good fight!"

With his own sadistic grin, Suigetsu replied, "Then a fight you'll get." With that Suigetsu vanished into the thick mist…

***

The last non-captain ANBU was on his final ropes, his chakra was now all but gone and he realized the Water Release Entity was just getting started. Hoping to hold back the creature and help his Captain, he quickly did the necessary hand seals and said, "_Katon: Haisekishō,"_ a steady stream of ash spewed from the small opening in the ANBU's mask and soon the thread creature was trapped inside a cloud of superheated ash.

Praying to Kami that his Jutsu would work, the Konoha Ninja clicked his tongue and ignited the cloud of ash, creating an enormous explosion that hit the monstrosity dead on. The Shinobi was about to join his Captain when he saw with amazement a sudden movement from within the surrounding smoke.

He felt a piercing pain in his chest, he lowered his head and saw a stream of water had went through his upper body. Through the clearing smoke, the ninja saw a highly scorched marked and smoking thread creature still standing. The masked monstrosity's mouth cavity was open and he saw a jet of water had appeared from its masked mouth to his chest.

The man knew then and there that his time was up. Blood gushed through his open wound as the stream of water slowly receded back into the masked mouth of the Thread-based creature. He fell down to the ground dead, without another word.

Kakuzu cursed as he felt an excruciating pain in his now nonexistent right arm and grudgingly retreated to his disembodied limb. Kakuzu controlled his Fire Affinity thread monster to keep him busy. He quickly looked at the fight between one of the final ANBU and his Water Entity.

He saw with a smirk that the poor fool had a Fire Affinity and chuckled cruelly as he collapsed dead from the surprise attack. _Serves him right though_, Thought Kakuzu coldly, _a ninja should never let his guard down until he knows the enemy is dead…_

Even with his arm being sliced off, he realized with satisfaction that he would soon have all 5 Elements at his disposal. Who cares if he had a limb disembodied? He could sew it back up easily, now he knew that his prey had the last Elemental Affinity he wanted.

Kakuzu quickly sewed his right arm back on his body with his left hand and ran into the fray yet again. He controlled his Fire Entity, which had been launching various fireballs at the Wind Natured ANBU to keep from taking advantage of his incapacitation, to fall back, that bastard was his to kill. The thread creature disappeared into the black smoke that was created from the multiple fireballs.

Kakuzu appeared through the thick layer of smoke and onto the other side and glared at the ANBU Captain and said, "I have to say, I'm impressed, not only did you injure me you have quite a rare Nature Affinity there, Wind perhaps?"

The ANBU Captain glared right back through his mask and replied, "And why would a monster like you want to know?"

Kakuzu answered, "I'm afraid one such as yourself would not understand even if I told you," that angered the ANBU and he threw a Kunai at the former Taki Ninja. This hit the Shadow Clone dead on and dispelled with a puff of smoke. The ANBU Captain widened his eyes; a piercing pain in his left lung caused him to look down and he saw the blackened fist of Kakuzu's though his stomach.

A dribble of blood ran down his mouth as he turned his head to the masked assailant, he thought faintly, _when did he…?_

As if reading his thoughts, Kakuzu answered, "I made the switch when I walked through that convenient layer of smoke," Various black threads wrapped around the struggling ANBU Captain's body as Kakuzu continued, "You never stood a chance ANBU Captain," with that, Kakuzu turned the barely conscious ANBU around and asked as he attached a tangle of threads to where his heart was, "Any last words before you die?"

Before he died he had to know… he asked through rasping gasps of breath, "So were you the one who killed Kakashi Hatake?" He saw with some satisfaction a fiery rage in his opponent's eyes and realized that the Akatsuki member didn't but he had certainly wanted to.

"Too late Akatsuki member, you lose…" whispered the dying Shinobi with contempt.

Kakuzu turned to his fallen foe and replied, "Lose?" he began to transfer the ANBU's heart to his own body and very slowly pulled off his mask to reveal his stitched face. "I never lose, fool," The ANBU captain screamed in pain and horror as his heart was stolen from him.

Kakuzu felt his new Wind Affinity mask form on his back and pulled his mask up. He continued by controlling his masked monsters to re-attach to his back and put his Akatsuki Cloak back on. Then looking at the dead ANBU and wondering if they would still be a decent bounty with their hearts missing.

He then walked over to the Copy Ninja's dead body, determined to find and wreak revenge on the bastard who stole his revenge. After he deduced that the bodies were worthless, of course. The Missing-Ninja looked at the bloodied corpse of Kakashi. He saw that his Sharingan eye was gone, ripped out of its socket…

Kakuzu's eyes widened as realization flooded through him, he roared in fury as he realized the culprit that had made his vendetta impossible to fulfill. The former Takigakure Ninja started to piece everything together, the more he thought about it the surer he became of who had killed Kakashi.

Kakuzu said to himself, "Itachi you dog, you knew that Kakashi Hatake was supposed to be killed by _my_ hand…" He now knew what Itachi's 'solution' to his blindness was… With that he disappeared from the battle field, vengeance in his heart, ready to get even with the one who had made revenge impossible… Itachi Uchiha.

***

Madara appeared mask and all upon a gargantuan mountain range where the morning mountain mist was already starting to form. A faint gleam of gold appeared just above the horizon signifying the beginning of the morning.

The Akatsuki Benefactor walked among a newly found trail, while he read the report Pain had given him… Madara continued to walk until he stopped on the edge of a seemingly bottomless canyon. The Uchiha instantaneously appeared on the other side of the wide expanse of nothing.

_According to this report, a very anonymous and isolated village where the Nine-Tailed Jinchuriki is hiding should come into view very soon… _Madara thought to himself. As he came closer and closer to his destination, he noticed the thick expanse of trees was thinning significantly.

He also heard the almost painful noise of the giant waterfall gushing down to form the raging river that had just came into view as the trees became even sparser. His heart started to race in excitement as he realized he would soon have the most powerful Bijuu of all in his grasp, the Nine-Tailed Fox.

Picking up the pace, he saw the overhang a small distance away, knowing he would see the entire village from this scenic view he practically ran to the ledge in excitement. He soon stood upon the outcropping taking in the scenery.

Suddenly Madara froze; the report he had been clutching fell from his hand and plummeted into the valley below. The barely visible Sharingan was widened in surprise, that very eye saw the burned remains of the very village his Jinchuriki was supposedly hiding in.

Madara Uchiha sighed in disdain as he said to himself, "Tch, I guess this is partly my fault... I should have never trusted that incompetent fool Nagato to do anything useful." With that he disappeared back to the Akatsuki Base, knowing now he would have to wait until any rumors of the Jinchuriki's location spring up…

***

Suigetsu thickened the mist even more, relying on sound alone to locate the injured Akatsuki member. Suigetsu heard Kisame's deep breaths, being as silent as possible Suigetsu slashed his giant sword at the fish-man.

Said man ripped the bandages off the sword and blocked; the Akatsuki member buckled slightly from the magnitude blow and it didn't help that he had a broken thigh… Despite his weakened state, he swiftly counter-attacked by appearing from behind his startled opponent and swinging his gargantuan sword down at the former Swordsmen of the Hidden Mist trainee.

Knowing he didn't have time to parry with his own sword, he jumped to the left… Kisame said with a smirk, "That was pretty good kid… Too bad I planned for that all along!" He pulled back Samehada with all his might and he heard a curse from the blinding mist.

Suigetsu looked at his disfigured shoulder with a frown; he had to admit he expected an easier fight… He thought with a smile as his shoulder began to heal by reforming itself by the water it truly is made from, _But then again I've always liked a challenge._

Kisame soon found out that even with the wound, the Team Hawk member wasted no time to resume their battle, from an attack from the side. Without even turning, he slashed the water clone with an upper slicing motion, cutting the clone in half. Kisame stated with a yawn, "You do know that you won't get anywhere with Water Clones, right?"

In response, two more Water Clones charged at the Akatsuki Member, one was skewered by an earth spike, created courtesy of his Earth Nature Type. The other clone dodged the various uprising stone spikes, and appeared from behind, using its momentum to swing his sword to the side of his opponent and cut him in half.

Kisame's water clone reverted back to its aqua form and the real Kisame said in the cover of the mist, "_Suiton: Suikōdan no Jutsu,"_ a giant shark formed from the water at the top of the stalactites, and the water shark hit the clone dead on and dispelled in immediately on contact.

Kisame heard something that made his insides turn into ice, the swishing of a far too close sword and the all too familiar slicing of flesh, he realized he was where he dispelled the first clone... or so he thought, the attack was so sudden and fast he was hit by his unforgiving steel blade.

With the combined efforts of his speed and his very keen senses, he avoided serious injury, but blood gushed though the open wounds of his left arm and side. He said to the culprit as he retreated slightly, "Very clever Suigetsu, , using your own liquid-based body to fool me into believing you were attacking me with Water Clones, while all alone you were hidden in the bunch."

The mist cleared just enough for Kisame to see Suigetsu's grinning face as he replied, "I have me moments, but you should really be starting to take this battle seriously, otherwise you'll die, and I don't want to gain your sword too easily."

Kisame's snarl turned into a gruesome smile as he answered, "Fair enough, but don't say I didn't warn you," with that, Kisame ran at the overconfident Hawk member with an incredible increase of speed. Kisame winced slightly from the pain in his broken thigh bone but ignored it if only to show that Suigetsu boy his place.

Suigetsu eyes widened as Kisame swung his gargantuan sword at him; he just barely blocked it with his own sword. The former Monster of the Hidden Mist's strength had also seemed to have increased too, using only one hand, Suigetsu started to buckle under the strain.

Kisame said as he started making one-handed seals, "You should have known Suigetsu, even in this state I'm still a lot stronger then you." Suigetsu bared his teeth in anger but deep down, he knew what he had said was true, he was still not strong enough…

Suigetsu was interrupted from his thought from a loud roaring sound, Kisame shouted, "_Doton: Doryūsō_," multiple stone spears sprang up from the ground and rose straight through the surprised Suigetsu from below.

Although it did not hurt him, because of his handy _Suika no Jutsu_, making it so the spears slide on through; however the former Kirigakure Ninja panicked as he began to realize that the stone spears weren't for injuring him; it was for immobilizing him, which it did, perfectly.

Kisame appeared through surrounding mist grinning toothily as he said, "Good, now you can't do anything annoying… like dodging" Suigetsu struggled in vain as he continued, "I have to thank you kid; you actually made this a pretty entertaining day." Kisame's sword starting to glow a light bluish color as he finished, "But like all good things, they must come to an end… Good bye Suigetsu Hōzuki!"

With that, Kisame slashed his sword, Samehada, at the still struggling Taka Team member with an insane speed; striking the young man dead on.

A second later, his body responded to Kisame's fast and brutal attack, multiple large wounds appeared on the Missing Hidden Mist Ninja. Suigetsu buckled slightly, making the spikes slide ever lower as he felt a wave of exhaustion; he had to use all his will power just to stay conscious.

Knowing he didn't have much time left he tried to use his _Suika no Jutsu_ to make his wounds fad away. But he soon realized that he didn't have enough chakra for such a Jutsu, Suigetsu asked as streams of blood gushed from his mouth, "You bastard, how did you…"

The shark-man grinned toothily as he interrupted him, "How did I prevent your little water trick?" Kisame controlled the earth spears to sink back into the floor, if only to see Suigetsu struggle to support himself. Suigetsu refused to fall, so to prevent himself from doing just that, he dug his sword deep into the stone floor for support.

Kisame looked at the pathetic display of weakness with amusement as he continued, "You of all people should know that my sword Samehada absorbs chakra, so when hit you with Samehada, I drained the most of your chakra to prevent you from using that bothersome _Suika no Jutsu_."

The towering form of Kisame appeared before Suigetsu, he finished with a smirk, "You didn't stand a chance, but I was bored and I needed some fun, but now it's time to finish the job!" Knowing he didn't have a chance at defeating the powerful Akatsuki Member now, he disappeared in a burst of water just as Kisame's sword fell down upon Suigetsu.

As his sword slammed into the stone floor, Kisame realized that his prey had escaped, and the shark-man screamed in fury and yelled, "Coward!" Just as he was about to chase him, the pain he had been ignoring before then, could be felt anew, and ten time worse. Falling on one knee, he controlled the stone furniture to resurface and he crashed into his welcoming bed, cursing all the while and feeling the blackness of unconsciousness rush over him…

***

Hidan looked at the large partially burned spherical chamber with frustration. He had been preparing for his eventual confrontation with Shikamaru ever since he had killed that fucking Team Hawk Member. He sighed, only that God damn Shikamaru Nara would make him do the one thing that was probably the most fucking waste of time on the planet, strategy.

He had to admit, it was very unlike him to think so… Rationally. _Then again, there isn't much to do in a fucking pit other then thinking of revenge on the piece of shit that put you in there_, thought Hidan angrily. Shaking his head, he interrupted himself from his musings to begin his training anew.

He did the necessary hand seals as he tried yet again his own Fire Ninjutsu. Unknown to most, Hidan actually did know what his Nature Affinity was, fire. He never really used it or practiced any Fire Ninjutsu before, hell; he barely knew any other Jutsu other then his Jashinist ones.

Only because of that shadow bastard did he even bother with all this fucking training and strategizing… But after several horrible months in that Hell hole of a pit, he had found that Nara boys Achilles Heal and he would make sure that he would take full advantage of his ingenious idea…

The very thought of killing that mother fucker in the most slow and agonizingly painful way possible sent a sadistic smile to the Jashinist's face as he declared, "Shikamaru, you arrogant fucker, Soon, very soon I will find you and kill you I swear upon Jashin-Sama, your days are numbered!"

With that, he started practicing his Fire Release Jutsu with increased vigor; his newly retrieved Jashin medallion shining sinisterly in the fire's glaring brightness.

***

Karin looked at the unconscious form of her beloved Sasuke-Kun from the safety of the various trees of Konoha with worry. During the retreat out of the accursed headquarters of the Akatsuki, Suigetsu had left her to go and claim Kisame's sword, Samehada, by killing said owner.

Ignoring Karin's words of skepticism and discouragement he went for Akatsuki's infirmary to finish off his weakened foe. An enormous emptiness could be felt in the pit of Karin's stomach. She had always wished to be alone with Sasuke, to just be a two-man team... but now she realized how naïve she really was.

She missed Jugo and his peaceful and gentle personality. She even felt somewhat worried for Suigetsu and his foolish attempt at defeating an obviously more powerful opponent. She looked at the wounded form of Sasuke worryingly; she had done the best she could, being unable to administer her Heal Bite Jutsu because of Sasuke being unconscious.

All she could do was clean up the Uchiha's wound with a wet rag from a nearby river and wrap it up with some makeshift rags from her Akatsuki robe, being as she no longer had any use for it. She looked with longing at the unknowing and unsuspecting form of Sasuke; she wanted so very much to do the very thing she had fantasized doing ever since he laid eyes on the Uchiha.

But before she could make up her mind, she felt the familiar chakra of Suigetsu nearby. As he came closer, she saw with horror that he was severely wounded; multiple large gashes could be seen on the sagging form of the former Kirigakure ninja. Karin rushed towards the barely conscious Suigetsu and caught him before he fell.

Karin said to Suigetsu, "You're a fool Suigetsu… but I need every fool I can get to help nurse my Sasuke-Kun back to health," she held her arm out towards Suigetsu's mouth; where he proceeded to bite down on her arm, the Heal Bite Jutsu already taking effect.

Before he went into blissful unconsciousness, he cursed himself for his stupidity, how could he have thought he even stood a chance with the strongest Swordsman of the Mist that Kirigakure had ever seen? He realized he had no answer to that question, so with that, he embraced the advancing darkness and soon he could remember nothing more…

***

Kakuzu ran through the various trees at an inhuman speed that could only have been fueled by revenge. The surrounding landscape soon became a blur from the intense speed he was going. So bent on vengeance, he did not notice the incapacitated Team Hawk fly by him…

He soon reached the location of the Akatsuki Base; he slowed down ever so briefly to pass through the strong Genjutsu and ran through the dark tunnel and into the interior of the base that he had helped create. Because of this fact he expertly walked though the maze of corridor and hallways to Itachi's Room.

He only slowed down briefly as his fist turned black from his _Doton: Domo no Jutsu._ He slammed his fist into the Uchiha's door with more strength then necessary. It flew into Itachi's dark and sullen room and crashed into an opposing wall with a loud boom.

Breathing heavily, Kakuzu strode into the Clan slaughterer's room, and looked for said Uchiha. A pair of intense glowing Sharingan eyes appeared at the left hand side of the room. Kakuzu glared at him with fury, so very much filled with rage that he was momentarily speechless.

Itachi appeared as a silhouette from the few candles scattered around the room, a book set upon the standard stone bed, in fact, besides a small spacing in which various books had been placed, the candles placed in multiple holes, and Itachi's bed, the place was otherwise completely bare.

"And what do I owe the honor of your company Kakuzu-Chan?" Itachi asked in his usual monotone, his glowing red eyes drilling into the former Takigakure Ninja with a great intensity.

Using all his will power not to step back, he glared back as he replied in a growl, "You know why you bastard, Kakashi was mine to kill!" Kakuzu's barely withheld killing intent broke from the Akatsuki member's normally unwavering composure and it rushed at the bored-looking Uchiha.

A wave of Itachi's own killing intent leaked out and hit Kakuzu himself, although even then, he did not let any emotion show. He said nonchalantly, "A human life is not something you can claim as your own; unfortunately you have never been one to take much regard in that particular area…

Kakuzu growled in growing anger, taking a step towards the selfish man which continued by saying, "I am sorry Kakuzu-Chan, but I had more need of him then you ever did…"

At that moment the remainder of Kakuzu's self-control broke, Kakuzu screamed a battle cry as he charged at the brother of Sasuke's, wanting nothing more then too rip the man before his Jade green eyes to innumerable shreds.

Before he could do just that, Itachi Uchiha calmly closed his right eye and said as he started activating his new Eternal Mangkyou Sharingan, "Let me show you the ultimate power of the Sharingan, courtesy of Kakashi Hatake."

A mixed version of Itachi's old Mangkyou Sharingan and Kakashi's old Sharingan appeared in Itachi's left eye, and he said solemnly, "_Tsukuyomi_…"

Kakuzu appeared in the black and red world that was Tsukuyomi pinned into an opposing wooden wall by swords that pieced each of his hands and his feet. The piercing pain penetrated his body; a pair of Itachi's appeared a few feet from his trapped form, each wielding identical metal katana's.

Kakuzu glared at captor with a large amount of loathing as he spat with contempt, "You bastard…"

The Uchiha duo gazed at the S-Class criminal with pitiless Sharingan eyes as the pair of Itachi's said in perfect synchronization, "You will experience excruciating pain for the next 72 hours," as they said that each plunged their metal katana's through both his lungs.

Kakuzu's mask soon became soaked in his own blood, gagging from his own blood filled lungs and wondering if this will end the illusion from dying in this painful fashion. Just then the cold blackness of unconsciousness swept over his entire body, numbing the intense pain.

When he awoke he saw with horror the same black and red world, where his hands and feet were pinned into a wooden wall with various blades as before. But the most astonishing thing was the fact that his fatal wound was completely healed. Kakuzu said with surprise, "What the Hell…"

Then he saw something that turned his insides to ice, multiple copies of him in the same situation were scattered across the barren illusion world. A moment later a pair of Itachi's appeared for each of the clone Kakuzu's including the original.

The horde of Uchiha's stated in exact harmony, "In the world of Tsukuyomi I control everything, space, time, matter and much, much more… including your mortality." Understanding hit Kakuzu like a ton of bricks, as the various Itachi's simultaneously plunged their katana's into the stomachs of each and every Kakuzu's.

This time Kakuzu's composure almost slipped but even then he refused to call out in pain in front of a man such as him, the pain was several times worse then before, he waited for the merciful sweeping darkness of unconsciousness, finally that very thing came, soon he knew no more.

When he awoke he saw not a couple copies of him… but hundreds. A moment later a pair of Itachi's appeared for each one of the Kakuzu's. They all said at the same time, "Only 71 hours, 59 minutes, and 59 seconds to go."

Then the countless pair of Itachi's plunged their katana's through basically every spot possible hit in the torso, all the pain was transferred to the original. This time Kakuzu couldn't help but howl in agony from the unfathomable pain radiating through his entire body.

Outside the world of Tsukuyomi Itachi stared at the prone form of Kakuzu collapse after only a few seconds of eye contact. Not wanting to make a scene he made a Shadow Clone which took the indisposed Kakuzu to his room, to recover from his mental breakdown.

Itachi knew Pain or rather Madara would be furious for immobilizing an Akatsuki Member, but he knew from experience that someone as strong willed as Kakuzu would be in fighting shape in a week at the most.

Itachi sighed; he knew that Kakuzu would definitely hold a grudge against him, making that a total of two Akatsuki members who would like nothing more then to kill him… He pushed the thought out of his mind as he began to train for the eventual confrontation with a certain Jinchuriki…

***

Zetsu slowly rose above the stone floor of Madara's room, where said person turned his head towards the plant-man. Madara said inquiringly, "What's the report?"

Zetsu's white side replied politely, "We have found the Eight-Tailed Jinchuriki Madara-Sama,"

Madara asked, "But where Zetsu, that is the most important part."

Zetsu immediately answered, "On the coast of the Land of Fire, on the small stretch of sand where no trading ships dare to venture because of the treacherous waters."

Madara felt a wave of excitement as he realized with all the Akatsuki Members accounted capturing the Eight-Tails would be pretty simple… Then reality came crashing down when he remembered only a few members were at full fighting strength.

Madara looked at Zetsu with annoyance as he said, "Go, I need to think things over..." Without another word, Zetsu melted into the ground below, to his own room to get some well deserved sleep.

Madara knew that the ones who were at full strength were in a bind themselves. Nagato needed some time with making his new Preta Path and to recover from the fight with Sasuke. Konan would never leave Nagato's side until he was at full fighting capacity. Deidara was not suited with a close-range fighter such as Killer Bee.

Hidan would stop at nothing until he wreaked his revenge on Shikamaru Nara. He knew that Itachi would be of no use this time as well, if Sasuke couldn't have beaten him, then Itachi couldn't either. He realized that the best choices for this kind of thing would be Kakuzu, Sasori, and Kisame… He knew that Kisame would be healthy enough within a week or so…

Madara grinned in anticipation as he teleported to Pain's room to tell him of the new development and to give the orders that the three chosen Akatsuki Members would be sent on the mission to capture Killer Bee in one week's time…

***

A newly awoken Sasuke sneaked through the darkening woods of Konoha, with a battered Suigetsu and an exhausted Karin close behind. Sasuke knew that he had refused to accept any help from anyone for most of his life… but now he knew he truly needed it.

Suigetsu was still gravely injured but continued onward through sheer willpower. Sasuke knew without a doubt Konoha would not accept him back with open arms after joining Akatsuki, kidnapping the Raikage's little brother, and trying on multiple occasions to kill Hidden Leaf Shinobi ninja.

They drew ever closer to the rendezvous point that had only recently been established through a Summons, which was an expert tracking/messenger hawk which fell under his control courtesy of the Sharingan. It came as a big surprise when the hawk he had just dispatched had came back a few moments later with a return messenger…

Sasuke was interrupted from his thoughts by a slight from behind, courtesy of Karin. He looked at the blurry Konoha wall only just visible with the rising sun. He turned his attention on the small clearing he and his remaining team were now standing in.

A tall figure appeared from the darkness of the trees, with a caring look in the individual's eyes that lightened up when they were on Sasuke. Sasuke looked at his old friend with the very uncommon unsure smile, "It's been along time… Listen, I'll cut to the chase, I need your help and you're the only ones I trust besides the remaining members of my Team Taka… So what do you say, can you help me Naruto?"

---

Okay I am really sorry for the delay, but I but my heart and soul into this one so please review, I don't care what, but constructive criticism is deeply appreciated. I hope to add some new chapters a bit faster next time… And one more thing… Akatsuki Rulez!!!!


	7. Chapter 7

**Akatsuki's Revival**

The one known as Naruto was pretty tall, with spiky blonde hair, and had clear blue eyes that showed an enormous spark of life in each one. The only thing that could give away his status as the 9 tailed Jinchuriki was the three whisker marks on each cheek. He wore a coat that was similar to the 4th Hokage's coat, only his was black with red flames. Lastly, he had a huge scroll across his back.

Naruto took a step forward, wanting to embrace his long lost friend. Naruto said with complete sincerity, "Of course we'll help you; I could never turn my back on you…" Sasuke flinched at his words, knowing that he had inadvertently brought up his abandonment of Konoha.

Sasuke replied with a smile, "Thank you, Uzumaki…" As he said this, the fatigue and weariness that had momentarily disappeared at Naruto's appearance was coming back and he went into unconsciousness again. Naruto's eyes widened as he saw with horror the wound Sasuke sustained during his fight with Pain reopen.

Naruto quickly appeared in front of him, as he supported Sasuke, the young Toad Sage exclaimed, "Shit, why did Sakura have to go on a mission now of all times... I need to get him back to Konoha."

"No, you can't do that!" Karin shouted in panic. Naruto looked up at the last of Team Hawk in surprise; he had been so intent on Sasuke that he had completely ignored Sasuke's other companions. He quickly deduced that they were none other then the infamous Team Hawk, although he realized there was on member missing…

Naruto looked at the battered and bruised teammates coldly as he asked, "And why shouldn't I give help my friend?"

Karin returned the cold gaze with one of her own, she replied in a collected voice as her glasses flashing in the rising sun, "Do you really think after everything Sasuke's done, after all the trouble he has caused, that Konoha will welcome him back with open arms?"

Naruto froze in place as the realization hit him that Konoha _wouldn't _just let him back into the village like this… Karin looked at Sasuke with a hopeless gaze; she had used up all her chakra healing Suigetsu and keeping their Chakra signatures off the radar.

Karin took her eyes off Sasuke and asked, "I can help him when he's conscious but until then, can you tell me who the Hell you are?"

Naruto looked at the young woman with mingled interest as he answered, "I'm an old friend of his, after the Akatsuki's invasion of Konoha, I was about to help Sakura and Kakashi look for Itachi's body when your Messenger Hawk came…"

Karin's and Suigetsu's eyes widened as they both said, _"Itachi's _body?!"

***

Sakura and the accompanying ANBU jumped along tree branch after tree branch. The first retrieval squad failed to report back and Tsunade was worried about the various Konoha Shinobi disappearances. So she ordered Sakura to tag along with the second ANBU squad to investigate.

Sakura increased her speed and soon she was a decent distance ahead of the group. Before the ANBU could catch up, there was an unexpected flash of movement and the squad of ANBU ninja each fell to the ground dead, not even realizing what had hit them.

Sakura, unaware of the transaction, continued on, oblivious to the approaching danger… Soon she sprang into a clearing that she faintly recalled was where Naruto had fought a Bone-user named Kimimaro. The landscape was mostly the same the tall grasses dominated much of the scenery.

She was about to move on when she heard a snap of a twig behind her. She quickly turned around, and what she found made her eyes spring wide open and she became paralyzed with shock and fear. Only one word escaped her petrified mouth, "Sasori..."

A clear angelic voice came out of the black cloaked man. "Hello Sakura... long time no see. This time I will personally make sure you die in the quickest and most painful way possible." Sasori smiled at Sakura sadistically, the Puppet Master clenched and unclenched his fists in anticipation as he continued."After all I hate to keep the others waiting."

The one called Sasori was at least in appearance, not in the least intimidating. He was what seemed to be a red-haired teenage boy with a beautiful face and hazel colored eyes.

However, Sakura knew better then to underestimate this supposedly dead Akatsuki member. She knew that this was not an illusion, no this massive killing-intent was meant for only two people only, now that one was dead, she was now there to take the full extent of the seemly harmless Akatsuki member's rage.

When she was finally able to speak again, she said in a mangled whisper. "Sasori, how are you still alive? I saw you die at the old Akatsuki hideout... What kind of monster are you?!"

An amused look passed on Sasori face. He then replied, "I prefer the term Puppet Master, although names will not matter to the soon to be deceased..."

Then he took out a battered looking scroll. "Be proud, you will die at the hands of my remaining art," Sasori said happily.

A huge puff of smoke covered the field and momentarily blocking out the sun. When the smoke cleared 9 somewhat damaged puppets had appeared. She immediately recognized 6 of the 9 as the ones she and Chiyo fought against last time.

Sakura now realized she no longer had anyone to back her up; _I'm all alone on this one, _she thought with despair. The realization was less then encouraging.

When the last of the smoke cleared she saw the final three puppets appeared. The moment she saw it, a wave of revulsion and horror hit Sakura like a physical blow. Yet again she was stunned beyond belief, she could only say one word."Kankuro..."

***

The Deva Path slammed his fist on the table next to him, breaking it instantly. "How dare Itachi immobilize one of our last active Akatsuki members," Pain growled.

Madara, who was leaning against one of the stone walls of Pain's room stated, "You should know that it isn't common for the Akatsuki to be fully assembled for too long and when they are, things tend to be… difficult."

The ancient Uchiha looked inquiringly into his ally's swirling Rinnegan eyes and continued by asking, "What did you expect, that each member would throw away their mutual dislike for one another and become best friends?"

The Akatsuki leader looked at the Missing Konoha Ninja emotionlessly as he said in his now collected and usual monotone, "I expect my underlings to behave accordingly."

"Tch, always reaching for the impossible…" Madara grumbled as he teleported back to his room.

The Path of Pain looked at the spot where the Uchiha had been just a moment before for a few seconds. He walked toward the hidden entrance where Konan and Nagato were and entered without any hesitation.

The room was moderately big, although it still looked the same as any of the other rooms. Since the Deva Path had an Earth Elemental Affinity, he could still make a sufficient room of his own. It was fortunate that the Animal Path was with them and had made it easy to summon Nagato and the other Paths inside the room.

The corpse of Jiraiya the Toad Sage was sprawled across the floor, where each Path finished adding piercing after piercing onto the Sannin's body. There were piercing on his chest, shoulders, neck and face.

The ones on the middle of the chest had six rectangular piercings and were in a in a rectangular shape with three on one line and three on the other. On the shoulders were two small spikes sticking out a centimeter of two.

The ones on the neck were patterned simple enough; four lines of round-topped piercings ran along the neck, each line placed in a separate cardinal direction. The face was the most unique, at the top of the nose was a line of round-topped piercing that went down until it stopped at the lower lip. The same type of piercings traced the tops of each of the new Preta Path's eyebrows. To top it off, each ear had a triangular piece on each lobe.

Nagato looked at the body of his former mentor emotionlessly, Konan at his side, each watched as the corpse became reanimated courtesy of the chakra surge from Nagato himself. The revived Jiraiya slowly lifted himself up, turning to stare at his new master with his own swirling Rinnegan eyes…

***

Silence swept the small group as each one realized the magnitude of the disappearance of such an important corpse. Team Hawk and Naruto thanked Kami that Sasuke did not hear the grim news himself…

Each one knowing exactly what would happen if Sasuke knew about this… He would ignore his injuries, head straight for the Akatsuki Base, and stop at nothing to get back the corpse of his beloved older brother.

Besides a small stir, he was lay there on the ground unconscious and looking so… defenseless. It was killing Naruto to just see him lying there, unable to help his friend after so long. He knew from the second of his abandonment of Konoha, that his vengeance was one he had to do alone…

Of course that didn't mean he never tried to get him back, but in his heart he knew it would not be possible to get Sasuke back until he had killed his brother, the one who had killed the rest of the Uchiha Clan.

He wanted to do something to help his friend but realized that now he would have to rely on total strangers… The young Toad Sage sighed as he said to Suigetsu and Karin, "I hoped there wouldn't be any kind of catches with Sasuke's return to Konoha but I guess it was just wishful thinking… Okay, here's the plan…"

As the Nine-Tail Jinchuriki told the two Team Taka members his plan, a very inconspicuous hawk with black colored feathers watched from the shadows of the trees. The young Shinobi had never known that the very bird had followed his everywhere since his return to Konoha.

The hawk stared at the Jinchuriki intensely, listening to the various conversations of the group below. The glow of the Sharingan eyes disappeared in the rising sun, giving the hawk an undeterred exit as it flew back to its master… Madara Uchiha.

***

Sasori's eyes flashed with a mild interest. He then said."So you know my latest puppet? How… interesting, at least now you will have some company when I turn you into my latest puppet. After all, you do owe me for all the damage you caused…"

A wave of anger flashed through her entire body, "I owe you nothing, and your grandmother was right you _have _become a monstrosity!" Sakura yelled with contempt.

Anger flashed in Sasori's eyes as he said in an annoyed tone "I grow tired of this mindless babbling, now… Die!"

With insane speed he formed multiple Chakra strings and proceeded to attack. With a series of Katana, Senbon and Kunai thrown at Sakura which hit her dead on, it seemed as if the battle was already over… then the lifeless form of Sakura transformed into a dead log."Crap, a Substitution," mumbled Sasori with annoyance in his voice, as desperately looked for his prey.

Then Sasori heard, Sakura yelling, "Hell yeah!" As she landed a crippling punch to Sasori's back which split the body in half; it seemed that Sasori's rein of terror was already over…

Suddenly, Sasori voice echoed through the clearing bringing the words, "_Kogutsu no Jutsu,"_ to Sakura's ears. Sakura saw with frustration thatSasori's remains began to dissolve, as if acid were eating away at his skin.

Soon the broken form of one of the puppets she had seen before took the place of Sasori's; the puppet's splintered halves' insides were revealed… and inside of the broken husk, were numerous exploding tags.

Sakura knew what was about to happen a second before it did. She quickly jumped back, but not quick enough. She was then blown away by the massive explosion that decimated the surrounding landscape. The long wavy grass was now nothing more then a pile of ash, the nearby trees no more then shattered clumps of blackened wood.

Sakura's relief at surviving the explosive attack with minimal injuries was soon non- existent as she suddenly realized that 4 of the 8 remaining puppets were missing along with Sasori. She then heard a clattering behind her that she immediately remembered as the sound of a moving puppet and then dodged a punch from a giant figure, with metal claws and what seemed to be a mouth Senbon launcher as it soon shot out multiple Senbon from its mouth which she barely dodged.

The giant puppet then attacked again with a deadly punch, she jumped out of the way just in time for the puppets claw-like fist get trapped inside the tree.

She was surprised to see the power behind the attack as the puppet quickly removed his fist from the tree he had hit; an enormous hole appeared where the puppets hand was just a moment ago.

Another noise brought her attention to her left and right, where the familiar shapes of Karasu and Kuroari attacking on both her left and right sides and the giant puppets with the claws attacked her in the front. She quickly said "Shadow Clone no Jutsu," which made three clones appear in a puff of spoke.

The three clones continued to pull out Kunai and block the various attacks. While they were distracted she quickly started to search for Sasori and the other puppets. Suddenly 4 purple barriers erupted to form a box like prison.

She realized with horror that this was the same technique that had trapped the Third Hokage and prevented any help to come or any hope of retreating. Sakura realized with a deep sadness and panic that she would not leave this place alive.

***

Kakuzu slouched in his bed, midsection leaning on top of the wall, the rest covered in a white blanket. Sweat dripped from his exposed face as he recovered from his humiliating defeat against the famed Itachi Uchiha…

His jade eyes shot to the right where a smirking Hidan leaned against a wall looking at the fearsome Kakuzu in such a pitiful state. Hidan had heard of the one-sided battle against the two Akatsuki titans and had come to see his partner as soon as he had finished his training.

Any decent Akatsuki Member would have come to help his partner in his time of need… Unfortunately Hidan was not at all decent and would no sooner comfort and help his partner then quit his own religion.

"Pathetic… How retarded are you, going against Itachi, even I wouldn't do that and I'm immortal." Hidan declared, looking at Kakuzu with amusement.

"Says the guy who got blown to bits…" Kakuzu said closing his eyes as if Hidan was just an annoying fly on the wall, too unimportant to quirk his interest.

"Shut your God damn hole you bastard!" Hidan growled, losing his cool immediately.

Kakuzu sighed, "If you keep on annoying me like this I swear to God I will kill you," Kakuzu replied, saying his usual death threat.

Automatically Hidan said,"Like you could pull it off Kakuzu!" The tension lessened, if only a little.

"So, when are you going to so foolhardily exact your revenge on that Nara kid?" Kakuzu said, eager to break the boredom that he had had since he was dragged here.

"Not soon enough…" Hidan said through clenched teeth, "I have a plan…"

Kakuzu's eyes widened as he replied, "_You_ have a plan?" Kakuzu chuckled, "Hell must be freezing over… you must really want to kill that guy if you're actually going to use strategy."

Hidan said, "When you're blown up and then buried alive, there's ain't much to think about other then thinking over and over how you'll fucking kill the bastard who put ya there."

Hidan reached into one of his pockets of his Akatsuki cloak and pulled out a stack of cash, and then threw it at Kakuzu's lap. Hidan turned around and said just before leaving, "We're even, get better soon you greedy bastard…"

Kakuzu looked at the money and without further ado; he began counting the money… After all, he needed to make sure he paid in full…

***

Sakura quickly dodged another swipe from the giant puppet with the huge claws. Sakura knew she couldn't keep this up for ever, she was already running getting tiring and it had only been ten minutes into the battle.

All she could do was dodging, duck, and try to get a lucky shot in here and there. Multiple times she had tried to find Sasori, but he wasn't going to give away his location any time soon.

_But maybe_… Sakura thought, a plan forming inside her head. She then decided to put the plan into action, it was risky but it was the only thing she had to go by.

The giant puppet again tried to attack her, but this timed it seemed as though fatigue had finally set in and was to slow to dodge and the poisoned claws struck her shoulder.

Sakura gasped in pain but instead of collapsing from the intense pain, she focused her chakra into her fist and hit the giant figure in the stomach and making the puppet slam into a tree. When it hit the unforgiving wood it shattered on impact.

The victory was short lived, however, as she collapsed from the effects of the poison. Sasori smiled from his hiding place high in the trees, the shadows concealing him quite nicely. His smile turned into a grin as she saw the medical brat fall to the ground from the effects of his specially made poison.

_So what if she destroyed one of my puppets, I can always make another; they are expendable after all,_ the Puppet Master thought with a laugh.

Sasori wanted to end it himself and quickly stood up, suddenly the memory of a similar situation flashed inside his mind. He recalled from the battle before the consequences that because of his ignorance had destroyed his favorite puppet, the Third Kakekage.

He looked at the surroundings closely, looking for any antidote capsules or anything similar. None were there; he truly longed to kill the bitch with his own two hands, to see her fall into despair before killing in the most painful way possible.

_Better to play it safe,_ Thought Sasori disdainfully.

He then controlled Kuroari and Karasu to attack Sakura, making each release multiple blades that looked both deadly and menacing. Deciding just to be safe, to cut off her head when they are within range, decided Sasori.

The puppets clattered as it got closer still, just when it was about to end the life of Sakura Haruno. Said person jumped up and slammed both fists at the opposing puppets bodies, destroying them instantly.

***

Orchimaru sat in a throne-like chair, in a tall tower overlooking the damage done to his village… He sighed, he saw with slight annoyance even with the 24-hour work being done, various small craters were scattered all over Otogakure, with an enormous hole where his base once was…

The Snake Sannin sighed, although many believed he was dead, Kabuto had foolishly intergraded his own DNA with his own in the hopes to control his former master's power. It had worked… For a while. However the former Medical Ninja had severely underestimated Orchimaru's power.

It had taken only a few weeks for Kabuto's will to deteriorate and he soon joined the unfortunate souls trapped deep in the recesses of his mind. His defected minion had put up a surprising tough fight for control but eventually he was overcome by his sheer overwhelming power.

Although it was unfortunate his village and ninja, but more importantly his base was destroyed, he knew buildings can be rebuilt, ninja reborn, and his base recreated. The one thing that really made him annoyed was that his Akatsuki memento had been taken from him by his former Akatsuki partner, Sasori.

Akatsuki… From his sources, it seemed as if the seemingly deceased Akatsuki Members seemed to have been snatched back from Hell itself. Although it didn't concern him one bit, he knew if the resurrected Akatsuki Members could be killed once, they could certainly be killed again by Konoha.

That was until one of his Oto ninja appeared before, kneeling respectfully, knowing if he slipped up he would immediately be killed. "Orchimaru-Sama, I have some interesting news."

Orchimaru looked at the Jounin impatiently, "Speak insect."

The Oto Ninja replied with complete respect in his voice, "Our spies in Amegakure have reported the retrieval of Jiraiya the Toad Sage's body by the Akatsuki Leader Pain."

Displeasing the Leader of Otogakure was pretty hard to do, but it seems that this piece of information was not to his liking so with lightning fast speed he used his Kusanagi long sword to decapitate the surprised Oto Jounin.

"Shit… In those kinds of hands, Jiraiya could be a real inconvenience to me…" Orchimaru mumbled to himself, he wished it was that simple, that all he cared about was the damage he could cause, but deep down he felt a need to at least give Jiraiya a proper burial…

So with that, he disappeared, on a quest to find and give his old friend a proper burial…

***

Sasori was stunned as he saw his last batch of offensive puppets become completely obliterated.

_But how?!_ Thought Sasori furiously, the realization that he would now have to now fight Sakura herself was beyond infuriating, he then proceeded to sever the chakra strings connected to the Kankuro puppet,realizing that the puppet was now useless without any puppets to control_. _

_I should have added some sort of weapon_, Sasori thought with annoyance.

Sasori soon left his hiding spot and appeared out of the shadows glaring at Sakura with an intense loathing. "Why won't you die medical bitch?" He shouted with venom.

Sakura returned the glare, "I took a gamble," she answered coolly

"What is that supposed to mean?" Sasori inquired.

"I had been subjected to your poison multiple times, so it was a pretty good guess that I would develop immunity to your poison." Sakura finished, never taking her eyes off the dangerous S-ranked criminal.

"I must say, I'm impressed by your ingenuity." Sasori stated in an expressionless tone, although Sakura could see a comprehensive fury in his eyes. "Although you are only prolonging the inevitable," Sasori took out a katana from his Akatsuki cloak and proceeded to attack the pink haired kunochi.

Sparks flew as Sakura's withdrawn kunai and Sasori's kantana connected.

Sakura drew back as Sasori attempted to behead her. Sakura threw various smoke bombs to cloak her presence; Sasori cursed as he realized just how dangerous his position really was.

Looking desperately for Sakura; suddenly Sasori saw a flicker of movement, although it disappeared a moment later.

"Come on Sakura; are you really that big of a coward not to confront me without any help?" Sasori called out through the smoke mockingly.

Just as those words were said, Sakura's fist slammed into Sasori's chest.

Sakura hoped against hope that it was where Sasori's organ was, she knew that there had to be one somewhere, but as her fist connected with Sasori's chest, it went straight though and she heard the splintering of wood. Sasori looked at Sakura with amusement and said with a chuckle, "Another wasted effort,"

Sasori slammed his fist into Sakura's stomach, who coughed up blood as she crashed into the ground.

Sasori quickly leapt back and exclaimed, "In a physical fight there is no doubt that you are stronger, however…" suddenly multiple chakra strings attached to the various weapons that lay on the ground from the fight with his puppets.

Katana, giant kunai, spears, and daggers, each finger of Sasori's hands controlled a weapon that was big enough to pack a punch with a long blue chakra string. "I never come unprepared,"

Despair overwhelmed Sakura as she saw that even with no useable puppets, Sasori still had the advantage.

Sasori said with finality, "Now for the final time, Die!" with that Sasori manipulated the chakra strings and the fight began anew.

Various weapons surrounded Sakura and attacked from all directions, however before they could skewer the young kunochi, she ran straight into a wicked looking dagger, knowing that she didn't have a chance at dodging the barrage of weapons without some injury.

It cut deeply into her side as she charged toward Sasori, who scoffed at her overconfidence.

Controlling the chakra strings, Sasori dodged Sakura's punch and went on the offensive. Six large weapons soared towards Sakura; said kunochi dodged the best she could, but gasped in pain as several deep scratches formed where the blades had hit on the arms and legs.

Sakura used some of her chakra to stop the bleeding, realizing that her chakra was depleting fast. Knowing that the only way to win was to catch Sasori unawares and use all her chakra for a final attack, a plan started to form inside her crafty mind.

***

Zetsu felt at that very moment that he would rather been burned alive with Itachi's Amaterasu then continuing going on with this mission. He was assigned to monitor the 8 tailed Jinchuriki until it was time to capture it…

Little did he know how tedious it would be, He had no idea he wanted to become a famous rapper, _and with his skills, I hope he has another option in mind…_ Both halves silently agreed as he heard yet another horrible attempt at rhyming his raps, trying to find a word that rhymed with orange and eventually settling with 'porange.'

Wanting to slam his head into a tree if only to get rid of the insufferable raps of his assigned target, he reminded to his darker half that wanted to just eat his sorry ass and be done with it, that Madara had specifically assigned them to keep an eye on him and make sure he stayed in his original position.

Although it wasn't as hard as it he had originally thought, it seemed as though all that lazy black Jinchuriki did was sleep most of the day away, hunt for food, which took only a few minutes at the most, and make very bad raps on basically anything and everything that came to his mind.

But in the end, he had deduced that even with his seemingly harmless exterior, he was an opponent that should not be taken lightly. Even at the beginning, he knew to keep his distance, knowing for some reason that just one small mistake would give him away.

Zetsu just hoped that they would come soon, he couldn't take much more of this torture, even if it meant failing Madara… He highly doubted that he could stay there for even one more day then planned with his sanity fully intact.

Silently sighing, he watched from a nearby tree, as an energetic Killer Bee conversed with his Tailed beast about his newest song. Then, out loud began to rehearse his new work again and again, and at that moment the Akatsuki Spy new that it would be a very, very long night…

***

Sasori grinned, even through this was taking more time then anticipated; he knew Sakura was on the ropes. He cursed her for destroying his puppets and for making this even more difficult by somehow being immune to his poison, but he had to admit, this was becoming quite fun.

Sakura dodged another barrage of weapons, barely avoiding a fatal blow from a large kunai from above, giving Sakura a nasty scratch on her arm. Said weapon soared into the ground, knocking a large amount of dust into the air and causing the weapon to become stuck into the ground.

Unconcerned, Sasori quickly detached the connecting chakra string to the giant kunai and reattached it to a wicked looking scimitar that was strewn across the battlefield.

Growing tired of the battle and the time it was taking, Sasori decided it was time to end this battle, so he controlled his chakra string manipulated weapons to go for the kill.

To his surprise he found that Sakura didn't move away, Sasori realized that she must have given up.

"Good bye Sakura Haruno," Sasori shouted. Every blade punctured that Sasori controlled hit Sakura dead on, to the back, legs, and even the head. Sasori smiled in triumphant.

Sasori was about to break down the barrier, when suddenly he heard a familiar voice from behind shouting, "Hell yeah!"

Sasori barely had time to turn around, his eyes widened in astonishment as Sakura ran straight at him her left fist glowing profusely with blue chakra.

Out of the corner of his eye he saw a puff of smoke coming from the body of Sakura, he realized too late that it was a shadow clone.

Sasori realized that she most likely made it when his giant kunai threw up a lot of dust, obscuring Sakura from view, giving her more then enough time to make a shadow clone and hide within her self with the cover in the trees.

Sasori screamed in fury as Sakura slammed her fist right into Sasori's head.

***

Madara Uchiha watched as an enormous thunderstorm came in, thunder and lightning shaking the ancient trees themselves. The Akatsuki Leader watched though his single eyehole of his orange, swirly mask, the rain and lightning that sprang from the heavens.

'Tobi' saw a speck in the distance, coming ever closer until a hawk perched on his outstretched arm. Its two Sharingan eyes peering into the single eye visible of its master. "So, tell me what you have seen and heard my minion."

Using his Kekkai Genkai the Uchiha peered through the inner thoughts of the black-feathered falcon, seeing and hearing the conversations of the newly arrived 9-tails and finally finding out the plan of the three conspirators…

The ancient Shinobi said with a chuckle to himself, "So, I guess I don't to find the last Jinchuriki anymore… It seems he just fell into my hands all by himself."

Underneath the mask, the Missing-Ninja smiled widely, knowing soon he would have the last two Jinchuriki in his possession. _Although, it is annoying that none of my subordinates are ready to capture them yet…_

The lightning flashed once more and when it's illuminating glare disappeared, so had Madara. Back to his base, back to his room, where he would begin calculating a devious plan to catch the final Jinchuriki, Naruto Uzumaki…

***

Various cracks could be seen on the purplish barrier, and then finally the entire prison fell apart. The four remaining puppets fell to the ground with a clatter.

The body of Sasori was not as gruesome as one might think; there was no blood, instead a number of splinters. The head of the once fearsome Puppet Master was crushed in on the entire right side, showing his true nature as a Human Puppet.

Sakura took a final glance at the once fearsome Puppet Master, walking towards her beloved village. Before she left she walked towards her fallen friend, Kankuro. She looked with sadness at Kankuro's new Human Puppet form and said with sorrow, "I'm sorry Kankuro…" she couldn't say anymore, she was about to turn to leave, but before she could, she saw something that turned her insides into ice.

The form of Kankuro slowly stood up… Normally this would be deeply disturbing, but what really caused Sakura Haruno's whole body to shiver with fear was the face of the puppet. Sasori face had replace Kankuro's, his hazel eyes glaring at the woman who kept on humiliating him at every turn.

Quick as a flash, his remaining puppets held the exhausted Kunochi in place, one for each limb. "You bitch!" Growled Sasori furiously.

Sakura could just stare at the Human Puppet with disbelief and asked with wonder, "But how did you survive?"

Sasori stated simply, "All you have to know is that I have achieved ultimate art," before he was about to kill Sakura Haruno he asked her, "Any last words?"

"You may kill me but know that Naruto will avenge me and will put a stop to your reign of terror," Sakura said solemnly.

Nodding, Sasori created a chakra string, attached to a nearby katana and caught it in his hand. He was about to end the life of Sakura Haruno once and for all, but suddenly stopped just as it touched the neck.

A marvelous idea crept inside the puppet master's head, one that made him smile evilly at the girl he despised more then anybody else. "No… I don't think I'll kill you…" Sasori said, storm clouds darkening the sky and enveloping Sasori's face into shadows.

Sakura froze, already knowing that his alternative, whatever it was, would be ten times worse then the original idea. Sasori continued, "Why kill you when live bait would draw in my very own Jinchuriki."

Horror raced into her heart as she realized the horrible implications of his plan, "Like I would allow that, I'll kill myself before that ever happens!" Sakura declared boldly.

Sasori smiled a sickening sweet smile, saying with emotion that was far beneath him, "Oh, I think you will, in fact…" Sasori clutched Sakura's head in a vice-like grip saying, "_Sennō Sōsa no Jutsu_," a piercing pain immediately formed inside Sakura's pain, despite herself she gasped in pain. "You'll help me full-heartedly," Sasori finished.

Sakura dropped onto the ground, unconscious from the pain or the Jutsu, Sasori couldn't say, but as quickly as it went, he was his emotionless self again, he sealed three of the four puppets in his scroll, just in case.

Lightning flashed, illuminating his new Akatsuki ring, and as the rain fell, he looked at the seemingly harmless girl emotionlessly. He mumbled to himself before picking her up, "How could one girl cause so much trouble?"

Shaking his head he disappeared back to the Akatsuki base with his prize… Readily preparing for his inevitable encounter with his newly assigned target, Naruto Uzumaki, the Nine-Tailed Jinchuriki.

Sorry for such the long delay… Had a mental roadblock, well please review and tell me any constructive criticisms, etc. Hope you like it!


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